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The Amsterdam Metropolitan Area: towards a creative knowledge region? Pathways to creative and knowledge-based cities: case Amsterdam

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The Amsterdam Metropolitan Area: towards a creativeknowledge region?

Pathways to creative and knowledge-based cities: case Amsterdam

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ISBN 978-90-78862-01-7

Printed in the Netherlands by Xerox Service Center, AmsterdamEdition: 2007Cartography lay-out and cover: Puikang Chan, AMIDSt, University of Amsterdam

All publications in this series are published on the ACRE-websitehttp://www2.fmg.uva.nl/acre and most are available on paper at:

Dr. Olga Gritsai, ACRE project managerUniversity of AmsterdamAmsterdam institute for Metropolitan and International Development Studies (AMIDSt)Department of Geography, Planning and International Development StudiesNieuwe Prinsengracht 130NL-1018 VZ AmsterdamThe NetherlandsTel. +31 20 525 4044

+31 23 528 2955Fax +31 20 525 4051E-mail: [email protected]

Copyright © Amsterdam institute for Metropolitan and International Development Studies (AMIDSt),University of Amsterdam 2007. All rights reserved. No part of this publication can be reproduced in any form,by print or photo print, microfilm or any other means, without written permission from the publisher.

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Accommodating Creative Knowledge – Competitiveness of European MetropolitanRegions within the Enlarged Union

Amsterdam 2007AMIDSt, University of Amsterdam

The Amsterdam Metropolitan Area: towards a creativeknowledge region?

Pathways to creative and knowledge-based cities: case Amsterdam

ACRE report [2.1]

Marco BontjeBart Sleutjes

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ACRE

ACRE is the acronym for the international research project Accommodating CreativeKnowledge – Competitiveness of European Metropolitan Regions within the enlarged Union.

The project is funded under the priority 7 ‘Citizens and Governance in a knowledge-basedsociety within the Sixth Framework Programme of the EU (contract no. 028270).

Coordination:

Prof. Sako MusterdUniversity of AmsterdamAmsterdam institute for Metropolitan and International Development Studies (AMIDSt)Department of Geography, Planning and International Development StudiesNieuwe Prinsengracht 130NL-1018 VZ AmsterdamThe Netherlands

Participants:

Amsterdam (Amsterdam institute for Metropolitan and International Development Studies, University ofAmsterdam, the Netherlands)Marco Bontje ~ Olga Gritsai ~ Heike Pethe ~ Bart Sleutjes ~ Wim Ostendorf ~ Puikang Chan

Barcelona (Centre de Recerca en Economia del Benestar – Centre for Research in Welfare Economics,University of Barcelona, Spain)Montserrat Pareja Eastaway ~ Joaquin Turmo Garuz ~ Montserrat Simó Solsona ~ Lidia Garcia Ferrando~ Marc Pradel i Miquel

Birmingham (Centre for Urban and Regional Studies, University of Birmingham, UK)Alan Murie ~ Caroline Chapain ~ John Gibney ~ Austin Barber ~ Jane Lutz ~ Julie Brown

Budapest (Institute of Geography, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Hungary)Zoltán Kovács ~ Zoltán Dövényi ~ Tamas Egedy ~ Attila Csaba Kondor ~ Balázs Szabó

Helsinki (Department of Geography, University of Helsinki, Finland)Mari Vaattovaara ~ Tommi Inkinen ~ Kaisa Kepsu

Leipzig (Leibniz Institute of Regional Geography, Germany)Joachim Burdack ~ Günter Herfert ~ Bastian Lange

Munich (Department of Geography, Ludwig-Maximilian University, Germany)Günter Heinritz ~ Sabine Hafner ~ Manfred Miosga ~ Anne von Streit

Poznan (Institute of Socio-Economic Geography and Spatial Management, Adam MickiewiczUniversity, Poland)Tadeusz Stryjakiewicz ~ Jerzy J. Parysek ~ Tomasz Kaczmarek ~ Michal Meczynski

Riga (Stockholm School of Economics in Riga, Latvia)Anders Paalzow ~ Diana Pauna ~ Vjacheslav Dombrovsky ~ Roberts Kilis ~ Arnis Sauka

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Sofia (Centre for Social Practices, New Bulgarian University, Bulgaria)Evgenii Dainov ~ Vassil Garnizov ~ Maria Pancheva ~ Ivan Nachev ~ Lilia Kolova

Toulouse (Interdisciplinary Centre for Urban and Sociological Studies, University of Toulouse-II LeMirail, Toulouse, France)Denis Eckert ~ Christiane Thouzellier ~ Elisabeth Peyroux ~ Michel Grossetti ~ Mariette Sibertin-Blanc~ Frédéric Leriche ~ Florence Laumière ~ Jean-Marc Zuliani ~ Corinne Siino ~ Martine Azam

Milan (Department of Sociology and Social research, University degli Studi di Milan Bicocca, Italy)Enzo Mingione ~ Francesca Zajczyk ~ Elena dell’Agnese ~ Silvia Mugnano

Dublin (School of Geography, Planning and Environmental Policy, University College Dublin, Ireland)Declan Redmond ~ Brendan Williams ~ Niamh Moore ~ Veronica Crossa ~ Martin Sokol

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Table of contents

0 Executive summary.......................................................................................................31.1 Introduction .................................................................................................................51.2 Recent development of the Dutch economy..................................................................61.3 Recent Dutch socio-demographic and socio-cultural trends..........................................71.4 The national policy context: economic development policies, spatial developmentpolicies, and cross-sectoral policies....................................................................................81.5 Conclusions ...............................................................................................................10

2 Introduction to the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area..................................................122.1 Geographical and demographical context ...................................................................122.2 Regional co-operation: RSA, City Region Amsterdam and Randstad .........................132.3 Functions and main economic specialisations.............................................................152.4 Amsterdam in Europe and the world ..........................................................................162.5 Conclusions ...............................................................................................................17

3 The historic development path of the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area.....................183.1 Until 1950..................................................................................................................183.1.1 The late Middle Ages and Renaissance: city foundations and polderreclamations ....................................................................................................................183.1.2 The Golden Age: from city to metropolis .................................................................203.1.3 The 18th and early 19th century: losing power and prestige......................................213.1.4 Amsterdam’s ‘Second Golden Age’, the AUP, and World War II .............................233.2 1950-1980: sub-urbanisation, modernisation and citizen protest .................................253.3 1980-2000: the resurgent metropolis?.........................................................................263.4 Conclusions ...............................................................................................................29

4 The Amsterdam Metropolitan Area in the early 21st century..................................304.1 Social situation...........................................................................................................304.1.1 Population distribution and growth .........................................................................304.1.2 Demographic population composition .....................................................................324.1.3 Ethnic population composition ................................................................................334.1.4 Socio-economic population composition .................................................................374.2 Economic situation.....................................................................................................414.2.1 Recent economic results and developments .............................................................414.2.2 Specialisation..........................................................................................................444.2.4 Settlement climate ...................................................................................................474.3 Housing market and infrastructure .............................................................................494.3.1 The housing stock....................................................................................................494.3.2 Housing market sectors ...........................................................................................494.3.3 Transport infrastructure..........................................................................................514.4 Conclusions ...............................................................................................................52

5 The current state of the creative knowledge sectors..................................................535.1 Statistical analysis of creative knowledge sectors .......................................................53

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5.1.1Creative industries in the Netherlands and Amsterdam ............................................535.1.2 Creative business services .......................................................................................545.1.3 Arts .........................................................................................................................585.1.4 Media and entertainment.........................................................................................605.1.5 Other creative knowledge sectors ............................................................................645.1.6 Explanations for clusters of creative knowledge sectors ..........................................695.2 Residential preferences of creative knowledge workers ..............................................725.3 Soft factors ................................................................................................................755.3.1 Safety ......................................................................................................................755.3.2 Diversity and tolerance ...........................................................................................755.3.3 Amsterdam as a ‘Fun City’: places to go; things to do ............................................775.3.4 Attractiveness and authenticity ................................................................................795.4 Conclusions ...............................................................................................................80

6 Improving competitiveness in the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area ..........................816.1 Strategic programmes of regional governments, institutions and coalitions ................816.2 Current policy ambitions in the largest cities of the Amsterdam MetropolitanArea.................................................................................................................................866.3 Amsterdam’s economic policy: HERMEZ and Amsterdam Top City .........................886.4 Regional economic policy: the OPERA plan and ‘Going for Gold’ ............................906.5 Metropolitan marketing: ‘I Amsterdam’.....................................................................926.6 Spatial development: from polycentric region to metropolis? .....................................936.7 Housing, social and cultural policy in the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area...................966.8 Towards a complementary creative knowledge region?............................................1006.9 Conclusions: opportunities and challenges for the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area....101

7 Preliminary conclusions of the Amsterdam case study ...........................................103

References ....................................................................................................................105

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0 Executive summary

Amsterdam is the capital and largest city of the Netherlands and is located in the denselypopulated Randstad urban region, which furthermore includes Rotterdam, The Hague andUtrecht. The Amsterdam Metropolitan Area is a growing region, where growth mainly takesplace in ‘new towns’ in the wider region, while growth in the core city is stagnating becauseof limited building space. The region has a relatively young and diverse population and isespecially characterized by high shares of ‘non-Dutch’ residents and single-personhouseholds. The region is relatively mixed in socio-economic terms and also has a relativelyhighly educated active population.

Amsterdam has a rich history as a trade centre and has especially been successful in the 17th

century, the so-called ‘Golden Age’. In the 18th and 19th centuries, Amsterdam’s economystagnated and the city region missed the Industrial Revolution. The city never had a ‘primatecity’ status in the Netherlands; tasks have always been divided between Amsterdam (financialcentre), Rotterdam (industrial centre) and The Hague (political centre). This development pathis still structuring Amsterdam’s economy in the early 21st century. Currently, the regionaleconomy is still dominated by the service sector (85% of all regional employment; even 92%in the city of Amsterdam) and has only modest industrial and agricultural sectors. The regionis specialized most in the sectors transport, distribution and communication, financial servicesand hotels and restaurants. Also, the region has an above average share of professionals andsenior officials, and this share has been growing as well over the last few years. The regionaleconomy is very diverse, which means that a decline in one sector can always be compensatedor at least mitigated by growth in other sectors. This makes the city less vulnerable in times ofeconomic change. Some important sectors in the region (e.g. ICT and tourism) are highlydependent on the development of the world economy, which resulted in economic stagnationat the beginning of the 21st century, but also to new economic growth since 2004.

The Amsterdam metropolitan area is the economically most powerful region of theNetherlands, but does not dominate the national economy on its own because of the earliermentioned decentralized urban system. The Amsterdam region has 17% of all Dutchcompanies and 15% of all national employment. An interesting development is that the city ofAmsterdam is no longer the only significant economic centre within the region. Although thecity still has 40% of all regional employment, most growth takes place in other regional sub-centres. The growth of the wider region does not automatically imply a decline of the city ofAmsterdam. Rather, the city and the rest of the region are complementary.

The number of companies has increased over the last 5 years, and an increasing share of newcompanies belongs to knowledge-intensive and creative industries. In total, 31% of allregional companies and 26% of all regional employment currently belong to the creativeknowledge sectors, which is much more than the national figures. Even 24% of all Dutchcreative knowledge companies are located in the Amsterdam metropolitan area, making it theprime concentration of the Dutch creative knowledge economy. Especially for certain creative

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industries and the ‘law and other business services’ sector, the Amsterdam region isdominant. It is also the financial capital of the Netherlands; especially in terms ofheadquarters and stock exchange activities. The creative industries have a small share in thetotal regional number of firms (15%) and the total regional employment (8%), but for mostcreative industries, the shares in the Amsterdam region are higher than on the national level.The creative knowledge sectors are concentrated in a few districts or sub-regions; mostly inplaces with an historic character or locations that are highly accessible by different kinds oftransport. Often, there are a few large companies on peripheral locations and many smallercompanies in the inner-city milieus.

The reason for the Amsterdam region’s recent economic success can be found in theattractiveness of its business climate, as formulated by the European Cities Monitor 2006. Theregion’s strong points are perceived to be the good accessibility to markets, the availability ofhighly-educated and bilingual staff, the high quality transport connections (Schiphol airport)and the high living standard of personnel. Related to this are the so-called ‘soft-factors’:improved safety; the presence of many (cultural) facilities that make face-to-face contactspossible (especially in the city of Amsterdam, but to a lesser extent also in the wider region);the availability of many green spaces in the city and the variety of landscapes in the widerregion; diversity in ethnicity and lifestyles; a tolerant and liberal climate (especially in the cityof Amsterdam, though this climate seems to have worsened there in recent years); the historicand unique inner city of Amsterdam and several attractive historic towns in the wider region.Negative aspects, however, are high costs of living, the shortage of (affordable) housing andhigh personnel costs.

The current policy agenda is focusing on increasing the competitiveness of the AmsterdamMetropolitan Area and tries to promote the Amsterdam region as an attractive location forenterprises. The creative knowledge industries play a prominent role in these policies, sincethey are regarded as the key to economic success. Very recently, however, the localgovernment of Amsterdam at the same time tries to fight the reverse side of the knowledgeeconomy: increasing poverty. It wants to stimulate sustainable economic growth, withparticipation of all citizens. Also most other cities in the region try to increase their share inthe regional economic growth by trying to attract more employment. The regional economicpolicy has as its main targets: optimising the use of the regional economy’s specific profile,maintaining the broad and diversified economic base, increasing coherence of the regionaleconomy and spatially balanced regional economic development.

Finally, next to successes and promising opportunities, also some difficult challenges remainfor the Amsterdam region, which have to be overcome in order to retain a competitiveeconomic position. The most difficult challenges are in the fields of regional co-operation, thehousing market and the integration of different strategic policy programmes (e.g. theeconomic and social policies).

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1 The Amsterdam Metropolitan Area in its Dutch context

1.1 Introduction

The Netherlands is situated in the north-west of the European continent, more or less in themiddle of the area the EU indicates as the ‘North West Metropolitan Area’ (figure 1). With16.4 million inhabitants on only 33,800 km2 of land surface, the country has one of the highestpopulation densities worldwide: 484 inhabitants per km2 (January 2007). The most denselypopulated and economically most important part of the country is the Randstad area, of whichthe Amsterdam Metropolitan Area is a part. The Randstad area also includes the metropolitanareas of Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht. Amsterdam is the largest city of the Netherlandswith about 743,000 inhabitants on 1 January 2007. Rotterdam (582,000) and The Hague(475,000) are not far behind, though (http://www.statline.cbs.nl). The Netherlands has apolycentric urban system with little hierarchy, including about 25 cities with more than100,000 inhabitants.

Figure 1: The location of Amsterdam in Europe (Source: O+S, 2006)

Figure 1: The location of the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area in Europe (EU area as of 1-1-2006)(Source: O+S)

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Amsterdam is also the country’s most important economic centre, but just like with thepopulation division, it is not dominating the country or even the Randstad region. For historicreasons that will be elaborated in chapter 3, the four largest cities of the Netherlands (and tosome extent also their metropolitan areas) have different economic specialisation profiles thatcomplement each other. Amsterdam is the main financial and cultural centre and recently italso developed into the leading location for the creative industries (see chapter 4). Rotterdamhas the country’s largest harbour and a huge logistics and distribution complex. The Hague isthe national political centre and has recently also developed as an important internationaljustice centre. Utrecht, the fourth largest city, is an important node in the national highwayand railway networks and has the country’s largest university.

Politically, the Netherlands is a parliamentary monarchy. The Dutch queen has some politicalinfluence, but her task is mainly ceremonial and symbolic. The ministerial council, headed bya prime minister, is the most influential and powerful political body in the Netherlands. Theirpolicy programme has to be approved by the parliament, consisting of two chambers. Themembers of the Second Chamber are directly elected by the Dutch population. The membersof the First Chamber are indirectly elected. The later represent the provinces, the regionalgovernment level of the Netherlands, at the national policy level. The Dutch political systemgrants most influence to the national government on the one hand, and the local (municipal)government on the other. The political power of the provinces is relatively weak compared tothe other two administrative levels. In November 2006, parliamentary elections resulted in apolitical ‘landslide’ and brought a new governing coalition into power. In February 2007, thisnew government of Christian Democrats (CDA), Social Democrats (PvdA) and a smallChristian party (CU) was installed.

1.2 Recent development of the Dutch economy

The last decade of Dutch economic development can be divided into three periods withradically different trends (CBS, 2006). First, the late 1990s were a time of unprecedentedeconomic prosperity. National economic growth as expressed in the gross domestic productwas well above 3% for several years, employment rose with hundreds of thousands of jobs,unemployment decreased to about 5%. A second sub-period with opposite trends started in2001. National economic growth plummeted to just above and even shortly just below 0%and unemployment rose quite fast. In 2004, however, the economic tide of the Netherlandsturned once more. Since then, most indicators of economic development for the Netherlandshave been constantly positive, resulting in a return to the high growth level of the late 1990sin 2006. The prognoses for the next few years seem to indicate that economic growth will lastat least one or two years more. As a result, unemployment is back at about 5%, which is quitelow for current EU standards. It must be added, though, that the comparison with othercountries might be complicated by differences in unemployment definitions and by therelatively high share of part-time workers in the Netherlands.

The sharp up- and downturns in recent years indicate that the Dutch economy is an open andinternationally oriented economy. The Dutch economy has become extremely service-oriented. There are still several significant manufacturing headquarters in the Netherlands,

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and some of them still have a considerable part of their production facilities in theNetherlands, too. Nevertheless, a lot of manufacturing jobs have been lost since the 1970s dueto factory closures and outsourcing of production to Eastern Europe and Asia. At the sametime, the agricultural sector has become marginalized.

The economic sectors that contributed most to the upsurge of the Dutch economy in the late1990s were also the main contributors to the crisis between 2001 and 2004. In the late 1990s,especially ICT, business services (particularly finance, insurance and real estate), the creativeindustries, and logistics and distribution were fast-growing sectors in terms of employment,turnover and value added. The creative industries even grew considerably faster than thenational economy as a whole (Kloosterman, 2004). While ICT, business services and thecreative industries were typical growth sectors in most advanced capitalist countries in thattime, logistics and distribution have been a more traditional strength of the Dutch economy atleast since the late 19th century. The harbour of Rotterdam and Schiphol Airport are the mainhubs of the Dutch logistics and distribution complex. In most recent years, most of thesesectors have shown recovery from the 2001-2004 crisis. The only exception to this so far isthe financial sector, which seems to suffer from a more structural crisis (Engelen,forthcoming; see also chapter 4 and 5).

1.3 Recent Dutch socio-demographic and socio-cultural trends

One of the most debated socio-demographic topics in the Netherlands in 2006 was thestagnation of population growth and the prospect of population shrinkage. The suddendownturn of Dutch population growth took many politicians and analysts by surprise. Thelong-term prospect of a declining Dutch population, which is expected around 2035, was notnew. The most recent development and short-term prognoses, however, now look radicallydifferent than only about 5 years ago. Population growth in the Netherlands dropped fromaround 120,000 in 2000 to only about 29,000 in 2005. This was the lowest figure recorded inthe history of the Dutch National Statistics office (CBS). Final figures for 2006 were notavailable yet at the time of writing this report, but demographers expected an even lowerpopulation growth than 2005 (Garssen, 2006).

The main causes for this are a low natural growth, which has already been a trend for decades,and a much more recent rapid decline of in-migration and increasing emigration, mostrecently even resulting in net out-migration. The Netherlands have in fact been an in-migration country ever since the recruitment of ‘guest workers’ from Mediterranean countriesstarted in the 1960s. An emigration surplus had not occurred since the early 1950s, whenmany Dutch left for North America, Australia and New Zealand. This time it looks likeemigration destinations are most often much closer to home. A significant group of emigrantshave migrated just across the border to Belgium and Germany, where they found cheaper landand houses as well as tax benefits. In most cases the daily life of these emigrants continues totake place in the Netherlands, where they keep working and send their children to school.Longer-distance emigrants include return migrants to Turkey and Morocco, who return totheir region of origin after having finished their Dutch working career, and retired Dutch whoprefer a warmer climate or a more relaxed lifestyle.

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At the same time, in-migration has dramatically dropped as a result of stricter in-migrationand integration regulations. The events of ‘9-11’ and the rapidly increasing popularityemergence of populist politicians immediately afterwards have increased the tensions betweenethnic groups, especially between the native Dutch and the Moroccan community. Themurder of Pim Fortuyn, the most influential of these populist politicians, in 2002, and themurder of the controversial movie director Theo van Gogh in 2004 have only added to thesetensions. The tougher in-migration and integration regime resulting in this climate ofdecreasing tolerance has made the Netherlands much less popular among foreign migrants,including higher educated expatriates. It is very likely, though, that the new Dutchgovernment will return to more migrant-friendly policies.

Other socio-demographic trends in the Netherlands, like in most other European countries, are(Garssen, 2006):

- A continuously declining household size, with the average number of people perhousehold meanwhile coming close to 2. In 2006 the average household size was 2.3;it is expected to drop further to about 2.1 in 2030;

- A changing household composition: more singles, more childless couples, less nuclearfamilies, and a growing group of elderly living alone after the death of their partner;

- Ageing: the number of people aged over 65 has grown with one-fifth between 1990and 2006. 14% of all Dutch citizens belonged to this age category on 1 January 2006,and their share is expected to rise to about 25% in the coming decades.

- A slowly but surely rising share of inhabitants of non-Dutch origin. On 1 January2006, 19% of the Dutch inhabitants were of non-Dutch origin, meaning that they wereeither born abroad or that one of their parents was born abroad. Non-western ethnicgroups (10.5%) have meanwhile become a larger segment of the Dutch populationthan people of non-Dutch western origin (almost 9%). The figures for non-Dutch ofwestern origin are distorted, though, since they also include a large group ofinhabitants from Indonesia, a Dutch colony until 1949.

1.4 The national policy context: economic development policies, spatialdevelopment policies, and cross-sectoral policies

The most influential national-level policies that recently and currently set the national contextfor Amsterdam’s competitiveness programme can naturally be found in the economic domain,but also in the spatial and socio-cultural domain. Increasingly those domains are combined incross-sectoral policies, although department still manage to ignore and frustrate each other’sintentions frequently. Starting with the Dutch national economic policy, the most relevantrecent documents are Pieken in de delta (‘Peaks in the delta’) and Ons creatieve vermogen(‘Our creative potential’). Pieken in de delta (Ministerie EZ, 2004) signals a significantchange in Dutch national economic policy. After decades of attempts to encourage relativelybackward regions to ‘catch up’ with the economic core areas, now the focus has shifted tostrengthening the core areas to become more competitive internationally. This resulted in 6area-based programmes. The ‘North Wing’ of the Randstad, of which the AmsterdamMetropolitan Area is a part, is one of the targeted areas. For the North Wing, the main focus

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lies on a further expansion of internationally oriented business services. The Dutch nationalgovernment intends to finance 10 to 15 projects proposed by the region. These projects shouldbe related to the ‘spearheads’ creative industries; innovative logistics and trade; tourism andconferences; life sciences and the medical sector.

Ons creatieve vermogen (Ministeries EZ and OCW, 2005) is a joint policy paper of theMinistry of Economic Affairs and the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sciences. It isaimed at ‘strengthening the economic potential of culture and creativity’. The paper’s focus istwofold: on the one hand it highlights the growing economic impact of the creative industries;on the other, it stresses the perceived ‘indirect economic effects’ of excellent cultural facilitieson the attractiveness of the country for tourists and ‘the creative class’. The policy paperstates that economy and culture so far have been too separate and should be brought closertogether to profit more from the Dutch creative potential. The policy paper was the kick-off ofa national Programme for the Creative Industries. A first result was a ‘Creative ChallengeCall’, a subsidy competition for local and regional governments and public-private networksand coalitions in late 2006. The Amsterdam Metropolitan Area managed to claim subsidiesfor several projects in this call. The variety of initiatives with little to no cohesion at first sightmakes the eventual economic impact of this programme questionable. Moreover, the nationalgovernment contribution is very modest compared to what local and regional governmentsand companies are supposed to invest.

Spatial development policy has been a key priority of Dutch governments since the 1960s. Inrecent years, however, it seems like spatial development and planning is less and less seen asa national government responsibility. Local and regional government are expected todetermine spatial development to an increasing extent and market parties like projectdevelopers become more influential in the planning process. The heritage of the once muchstronger national planning tradition still makes itself felt, though. As a result of the compactcity programme set up in the late 1980s and early 1990s, large-scale housing locations arebeing realized at the edges of large and medium-sized cities. An important and influential partof this programme has also been the regeneration of former harbour and industrial areas, likethe Eastern Harbour Area in Amsterdam. Business locations have been planned veryambitiously with the ‘ABC-formula’. A-locations were to be realized at central city locationsnear public transport hubs; B-locations were planned at city-edge locations, again near publictransport hubs; and C-locations should be built at some distance from cities along highways.The A-locations soon turned out to be too much against market preferences. Therefore theABC-policy has mainly resulted in B- and C-locations and failed to reach its prime goal: toincrease the share of public transport and non-motorized commutes at the expense of privatecar commutes (Bontje, 2001; Martens, 2000). The most recent national spatial developmentpaper, the Nota Ruimte, is much less ambitious. It identifies ‘urban networks’ where mostnew housing and business locations should be concentrated, and ‘national landscapes’ wherebuilding should be limited. How to realise these rather vague and hardly quantified policygoals, however, is largely left to the provinces and municipalities. High expectations are givento regional co-operative networks that so far are mainly organised on a voluntary basis. Itremains to be seen to what extent the urban networks manage to become the self-regulatingentities that the national government would like them to be.

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Partly due to the Grotestedenbeleid (Large Cities Policy] in the Netherlands, the integralperspective in local city policy has become more important since the early 1990s. This policywas launched in 1994 when it was acknowledged that urban regeneration involved more thanjust physical measures. The programme will at least continue until 2009. The Large CitiesPolicy started with three main pillars: an economic, physical, and social pillar. A few yearsago, clearly influenced by the events of ‘9-11’ and changes in the Dutch political landscape, afourth pillar addressing safety was added. In 2005, the third five-year term started. Therelation and cohesion between the different pillars is considered to be extremely important inthis policy. Within Amsterdam, particularly the large housing estates of Southeast(Bijlmermeer) and the Western Garden Cities are restructured with the Large Cities Policyfunds. The large housing estate area of Bijlmermeer has in addition been involved in the EUURBAN initiative. Haarlem and Zaanstad are also receiving Large Cities Policy funds. Likein Amsterdam, they use these funds especially in the post-war neighbourhoods. To becomeeligible for these national government funds, the city governments are asked to write long-range development programmes and the cities are monitored by the national government on arange of indicators to judge whether they have reached the goals agreed upon in the local-national contracts.

A final cross-sectoral initiative with particular relevance to our research topic is the NationalInnovation Platform. This was founded in 2003 and clearly inspired by an earlier initiative inFinland. The Innovation Platform is led by the Dutch prime minister and has membersrepresenting business, labour unions, and vocational and higher education institutions.Concrete visible results so far were rather limited. However, in October 2006 a promising‘knowledge investment agenda’ was presented labelled ‘The Netherlands, the country oftalents’ (Innovatieplatform, 2006). In this agenda an ambitious public-private investmentprogramme is proposed. The public contribution is estimated at 3.5 to 6 billion Euros; privateparties are expected to contribute between 2.8 and 5.9 billion Euros. The proposed measuresaddress improvements in all levels of education from pre-school to university; life-longlearning; improvement of the public knowledge base; innovation; promotion ofentrepreneurship (which is relatively unpopular in the Netherlands). Linking to the Dutchnational economic policy programme, the ‘key areas’ for investments in innovation areroughly defined as ‘flowers and food’; ‘high-tech systems and materials’; ‘water’; ‘chemicalindustry’; and ‘creative industries’.

1.5 Conclusions

The Netherlands is located in the north-west of Europe and has one of the highest populationdensities worldwide. The most important region is the Randstad area, which also includes theAmsterdam Metropolitan Area. Although Amsterdam is the country’s most important centre,it is not dominating the country, both in terms of population and economy. Rather, the fourlargest cities have different economic specialisations that complement each other. Politically,the most important policy levels are the national government and the municipalities, whereasthe provinces have a relatively weak position.

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The Dutch economy has had some ups and downs during the last decade, but since 2004, theeconomy has been growing again. The economy is open, internationally oriented andextremely service-oriented. ICT, business services, creative industries, and logistics anddistribution are the most important economic activities.

Due to a low natural growth and a rapid decline of in-migration, combined with increasingemigration, population growth has dropped over the last few years. Other recent socio-economic trends are a declining household size, a changing household composition, ageingand a rising share of inhabitants of non-Dutch origin.

In terms of policy-making, there has been a shift in focus from backward regions to the coreareas, in order to make the latter more competitive internationally. Especially the potential ofculture and creativity plays an important role in recent policy-making. However, the lack ofcohesion between different initiatives within this programme makes its effectivenessquestionable. Finally, the recent spatial policy programme has shifted responsibility from thenational government to the provinces and municipalities. Regional co-operative networks areexpected to realise the policy goal to creative ‘urban networks’ and ‘national landscapes’, butthese networks have not (yet) been formalised.

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2 Introduction to the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area

2.1 Geographical and demographical context

Amsterdam is the largest city of the Netherlands, with a population around 750.000inhabitants. In the European context, Amsterdam is thus a relatively small city, but the widerMetropolitan Area has 2.2 million inhabitants. The city is located in the province of NorthHolland, but one part of the Metropolitan Area, Almere, is located in the province ofFlevoland (figure 2). The city is connected to the IJsselmeer (former Zuiderzee) by the river IJand to the North Sea by the North Sea Canal. The distance between Amsterdam and the coastis approximately 30 kilometres.

Amsterdam is part of the Randstad urban region, which consists of the four largest Dutchcities (Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht) and the green space (Green Heart)and smaller sized towns that are located in-between. Amsterdam belongs to the so-called‘North Wing’ of the Randstad, which is economically the most powerful region of theNetherlands.

Figure 2: The location of the Amsterdam region within the Netherlands (Source: Bosatlas)

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2.2 Regional co-operation: RSA, City Region Amsterdam and Randstad

Plans were made to develop the city and its surrounding municipalities into a city provinceand to subdivide the core city into smaller municipalities in 1995. However, these plans wererejected in a referendum, and ever since, formalised regionalisation has been a slow processand municipalities compete, rather than co-operate with each other. In the last couple of years,however, regional co-operation has been intensified in the economic, spatial and socialspheres. Still, this merely involves informal discussion boards and no strong administrativebody on the regional level has been founded yet. Within municipalities, the call for oneregional political entity is becoming increasingly louder. However, there are also discussionsabout what the Amsterdam region exactly is (Salet, 2003; Bontje et al., forthcoming).

Currently, there are several networks in the Amsterdam region in which the City ofAmsterdam and a number of neighbouring municipalities co-operate. First of all, the RegionalCo-operation Amsterdam (RSA) is an informal network of 38 municipalities in the provincesof North Holland and Flevoland. The region can be subdivided into 8 sub-regions:Amsterdam, Amstel-Meerlanden, Het Gooi and Vechtstreek, Almere, Waterland, Zaanstreek,IJmond and Agglomeration Haarlem (figure 3).+RSA is based on voluntary and project-based co-operation, and is basically a negotiationplatform. RSA does not organise and implement tasks itself, but rather co-ordinates andstimulates regional co-operation within the fields of economic development, social care andthe housing market. Regular meetings are held between the municipalities and other regionalpartners, like the provinces and the Chamber of Commerce, referred to as the ‘North WingConference’. The aim of this conference is to improve the international competitiveness of thenorthern part of the Randstad (http://www.roa.nl).

Figure 3: Regional Co-operation Amsterdam (RSA) (Source: O+S)

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Second, the City Region Amsterdam (figure 4), formerly known as Regional BodyAmsterdam (ROA), is a collaboration between Amsterdam and 15 other municipalities.Initially, ROA was formed in order to make way for the city province and only had atemporary status. After the city province was rejected, ROA was given a new permanentstatus only in 2005. One year later, the name was changed into City Region Amsterdam.

The City Region Amsterdam has legal competences in the fields of traffic and publictransport, spatial development, public housing, economic affairs and youth affairs. The maintarget is to improve the liveability, accessibility and economic development in the CityRegion. The City Region also stimulates regional co-operation, is involved in the adjustmentof municipal plans and the formulation of long-term regional development plans, as well asthe allocation and distribution of investment funds. Furthermore, the City Region representsthe region at meetings with higher authorities and is involved in several other networks onhigher geographical scales (like RSA, Regio Randstad). The new town of Almere left theorganisation formally a few years ago despite its important role in regional development, butstill participates in some individual projects(http://www.regionalesamenwerkingamsterdam.nl; http://www.roa.nl).

Figure 4: The City Region Amsterdam (Source: O+S, 2006)

Since 2002, there is also a formalised co-operation between the provinces of Flevoland, NorthHolland, Utrecht and South Holland, the ‘Kaderwet regions’ Bestuur Regio Utrecht, CityRegion Amsterdam, Stadsgewest Haaglanden and City Region Rotterdam, as well as themunicipalities of Amsterdam, Rotterdam, the Hague and Utrecht. This co-operation networkis called ‘Regio Randstad’ (figure 5) and its main target is to improve the international

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competitive position of the Randstad in Europe. Three times a year, a meeting takes placebetween representatives of the regions and the national government, which is hosted by theMinister for Spatial Planning (VROM) and where plans for and investments in the Randstadare discussed integrally (http://www.regio-randstad.nl;http://www.regionalesamenwerkingamsterdam.nl).

Figure 5: Regio Randstad (Source: Randstad Holland)

Apart from these permanent networks, there are also target-specific co-operations, which areoften linked to either the RSA or the City Region, but involve specific partners. Examples are‘Amsterdam Schiphol Area’ to encourage the development of Schiphol Airport, the ‘NorthSea Canal Area’ alliance, aiming at the sustainable development of the port areas alongsidethe North Sea Canal, the ‘Platform Accessibility North Wing’, focusing on majorinfrastructural projects and development strategies at the North Wing-level, and the city-marketing initiative ‘I Amsterdam’ (Bontje et al., forthcoming). The RSA region will,however, be the main focus in the rest of this report, because this region includes allmunicipalities that play an important role in the regional development. In the following, RSAwill be referred to as ‘Amsterdam Metropolitan Area’.

2.3 Functions and main economic specialisations

Amsterdam is the capital of the Netherlands, although it is not the seat of the nationalgovernment, which is at The Hague. Rather, the city is the most important city of theNetherlands in economic and cultural terms. This is illustrated by the region’s economicresults. The Amsterdam Metropolitan Area has a larger domestic product per inhabitant(around 33,000) than the Netherlands as a whole (around 27,000). Especially GreaterAmsterdam (the sub-regions Amsterdam, Amstel-Meerlanden and Waterland) can be seen asthe economic motor of the region: there, the domestic product is twice is big as in the other

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sub-regions. The regional ‘value added’ is around 61 Million euros; 75% of which isproduced in Greater Amsterdam (O+S, 2004). The region’s strong position can be explainedby the fact that the national airport and the second largest national seaport are located withinits territory and by the traditional diversity of the regional economy. Apart from financial andcultural functions, also sectors that are much less dependent on the state of the economy, likeeducation, healthcare and the public sector, are strongly represented in the region. Thisdiversity has made the city and its region less vulnerable in times of economic transition:Amsterdam has more sectors on which it can fall back in case one sector collapses. Forexample, at the same time that employment declined in the ICT and business service sectors,employment increased in the less vulnerable sectors. Therefore, the number of jobs in theregion continued to increase between 1999 and 2002, despite an economic crisis (Burgers &Musterd, 2002; O+S, 2004).

The Amsterdam Metropolitan Area has specialised in service-delivery and especially inknowledge intensive services. The city is known as the financial capital of the Netherlands,but also ICT, real estate, law firms and several creative industries have large clusters inAmsterdam. The industrial sector, on the other hand, has always been relatively small in theregion, although the port has been growing quickly over the last few years. Because of thisrelatively small industrial sector, the city was not significantly affected by processes ofdeindustrialisation, which led to high levels of unemployment in many traditional industrialcities, including Rotterdam (Burgers & Musterd, 2002). Recent policy documents by severaldepartments (economic affairs, spatial planning and culture) indicate that the MetropolitanArea wants to manifest itself as a ‘creative knowledge region’, but no overarching strategyhas been developed yet, as will be further elaborated in Chapter 6 (Bontje et al., forthcoming).

The city is also the cultural capital of the Netherlands: Amsterdam offers many culturalfacilities, like museums, theatres and concert halls, which in combination with the historicalinner-city attract many tourists from inside and outside the country. This image of Amsterdamas a culture centre and a ‘fun city’, and even as ‘the city where everything is possible’, couldhave a positive influence on the region’s plans to become a creative knowledge region, in linewith the ideas of Richard Florida (2002), who stated that economic growth is driven byhuman creativity, which is most likely to flourish in a vibrant, tolerant and diverse urbanenvironment. However, the city is also facing some serious challenges that might hamper thisambition, which are related to the housing market, the international image of Amsterdam as adrugs city (the negative side of Amsterdam’s tolerant image), traffic jams, the absence of aregional public transport system and the earlier mentioned political fragmentation andbureaucracy. These strong and weak points of the region will be outlined in more detail in thefollowing chapters.

2.4 Amsterdam in Europe and the world

Amsterdam is involved in several European subsidy programmes, the two most importantones being ‘Objective 2’ and ‘URBAN II’. ‘Objective 2’ is a subsidy programme by theEuropean Fund for Regional Development (EFRD), which is aimed at helping cities toimprove the physical and economical position of their disadvantaged neighbourhoods. Until

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the end of 2006, 34 Million euros have been allocated to Amsterdam for projects that havebeen implemented in the eastern and south-eastern parts of the city. URBAN II is an integralprogramme that focuses on social, economical and physical problems in large cities andespecially on parts of the city where those problems are combined. In Amsterdam, 31 millioneuros have been spent via this programme, including 9 million euros from EFRD. Theprogramme focused on the western 19th and early 20th century districts. The EUROLINKoffice acts as an intermediate actor between Amsterdam and the European Union. Itstimulates municipal departments, boroughs and companies to make use of Europeanprogrammes and projects and it also stimulates the formation of networks between differentEuropean cities (http://www.ez.amsterdam.nl).

In terms of international business relations, the Amsterdam region not only focuses on theEuropean Union, but especially on the United States and Asia. The recent boom of theEastern Asian economy makes this region an attractive business partner for the Amsterdamcity region and therefore it receives most attention in the recent economic policy document‘Amsterdam Topstad’. Japan and Korea have been important business partners for a longerperiod, but recently, the focus is shifting toward China and India as well(http://www.amsterdam.nl). In order to improve the international competitiveness of the city,the Amsterdam Partners platform was set up in 2004. Its goal is to promote and improve theimage of Amsterdam and the surrounding region and to attract certain target groups, bothfrom inside and outside the country. The city brand ‘I Amsterdam’ that was launched inSeptember 2004 is one example of an instrument with which the Amsterdam region tries topromote itself, thereby putting emphasis on Amsterdam’s combination of creativity,innovation and commercial spirit (http://www.amsterdampartners.nl).

2.5 Conclusions

Although Amsterdam is the capital of the Netherlands, it is not the political centre. Its leadingposition is mainly manifested in the financial and cultural domains. The AmsterdamMetropolitan Area has the strongest economy of the Netherlands and this position is furtherstrengthened by the presence of the national airport. The region is specialised in services, withan increasing importance of knowledge-intensive industries.

Amsterdam takes part in several regional co-operations, but there are discussions about thedefinition of ‘the Amsterdam region’, as different co-operation networks include differentmunicipalities. Also, most co-operations remain informal; there is no clear political entity forthe strategic development of the whole Metropolitan Area. Thus, there is much governance inthe region, but this is not always very efficient. The Amsterdam region also takes part inseveral EU programmes and has international business relations both inside and outside theEuropean Union.

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3 The historic development path of the Amsterdam MetropolitanArea

3.1 Until 1950

3.1.1 The late Middle Ages and Renaissance: city foundations and polder reclamations

Amsterdam was founded in a classical Dutch way: it all started with a dam in the Amstelriver, at a strategic location where this river reached the IJ, an arm of the Southern Sea(Zuiderzee). Until 1932, this Southern Sea was an inland sea connected to the North Sea;meanwhile it is known as the IJssel Lake (IJsselmeer). Amsterdam’s exact date of founding isunclear, but it was first mentioned in an official document in 1275. There must have been avillage long before that date, probably founded about a century earlier. The late 12th centuryin which ‘pre-city’ Amsterdam emerged was an era in which Northern Europe was changingrevolutionarily in many ways: the time of pilgrimages, significant improvements of shipsenabling longer-distance navigation, the introduction of machines like windmills and looms,the introduction of money, etc. The oldest remnants of a house found so far date back to 1225(Mak, 2005). Medieval Amsterdam was located in the area around the current Dam Squareand Nieuwmarkt square, where we now find the famous/notorious red light district,Chinatown, and the main city centre shopping zone.

Amsterdam was quite late on the European urban scene, just like most other cities in Holland,the north-western part of the Netherlands. Holland in those days still largely existed of lakesand swamps. The upper layer of its soil consisted of peat, which made building settlements acomplicated task. Moreover, the lakes and inland sea arms flooded significant parts of the‘dry’ land frequently. Only the coastal dune range on which Haarlem emerged was alreadyinhabitable. Haarlem was one of the first cities in the current Amsterdam Metropolitan Area:it was first recorded (as a small village) already around 900 and already received city rights in1245. City rights were also granted near Amsterdam to Alkmaar (1254), Naarden (1255) andMuiden (1296), before Amsterdam finally reached the official city status in 1300. Other partsof the Netherlands (the parts above sea level) had been inhabited long before. Cities likeUtrecht had already been founded during the Roman empire. It is not strange, therefore, thatAmsterdam in its earliest days had to settle for a modest role and its fate was initiallydetermined by religious leaders from Utrecht and regional noblemen like Gijsbrecht IV,representing the bishop of Utrecht in Amstelland (the Amsterdam region), and Floris V, countof Holland.

The emergence of Amsterdam was probably linked to the demise of agriculture in itsenvirons. When the lakes around Amsterdam became connected to the sea in the late 12th

century, wheat farmers in Amstelland got into big trouble. The combination of the increasedflooding threat and the continuously settling soil disturbed drainage and made wheat farmingimpossible. The flooding threat could be countered by constructing dykes, but the settling soil

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and high groundwater level remained problematic. The Amstelland farmers therefore turnedto cattle farming and became dependent on import for wheat products. Amsterdam emergedas the place where the trade of wheat and related products for dairy products took place(Speet, 2006). Amsterdam soon became an important trade centre, but in its earliest centuries,it remained in the shadow of older and more successful nearby cities like Utrecht, Haarlemand Leiden. Initially, the Amsterdam economy was mainly based on trade in dairy, wheat,herring and beer. Amsterdam managed to acquire the monopoly on beer import fromHamburg which stimulated economic development. A victory of Holland over the Dutchtowns of the Hanseatic League in 1450 also contributed to Amsterdam’s developmentconsiderably (Roegholt, 1997).

In the late 16th century, Amsterdam became the largest city of Holland with an estimatedpopulation of 30,000 people (Roegholt, 1997). The first political entity named ‘TheNetherlands’, at that time still including the entire current Benelux area with Brussels as itscapital, was formed by the Spanish emperor Charles V in 1543. Amsterdam was the mostimportant trading centre of this new ‘country’ (in fact still part of the Spanish empire)together with Antwerp. The city developed as a market and storage place of wood, corn, ironore, fish and salt. The market function also encouraged commercial services like banking,insurance, cartography and printing. Religious struggles between Catholics and Protestantshad an increasing influence on the Netherlands and on Amsterdam. In 1568 the Dutch revoltagainst the Spanish king started. Amsterdam initially chose the catholic (Spanish) side, butbecame isolated within the mainly protestant northern Netherlands. Several cities nearAmsterdam, like Alkmaar (1573) and Leiden (1574), managed to liberate themselves fromSpanish occupation. Haarlem had to give up its resistance against the Spanish troops after halfa year of siege. However, the Spaniards were forced to retreat from Holland as a whole in1577. One of their few ‘colonies’ left in Holland was Amsterdam. It was not long beforeAmsterdam had to change its mind: in 1578 it switched sides to the protestant resistancemovement. One year later the seven northern provinces of the Netherlands separated from thesouthern provinces to form the Dutch Republic. Soon afterwards Amsterdam profited fromthis forced choice: when Antwerp was conquered by the Spaniards, its harbour was blockedby the Dutch and many rich merchants moved from Antwerp to Amsterdam. Many of themwere of Portuguese-Jewish origin; they feared prosecution by the Spanish catholic rulers, andwere welcomed with open arms in protestant Amsterdam. This is probably the origin ofAmsterdam’s fame as a tolerant city. The relatively loose reign of the Dutch ‘stateholders’,contrasting with the absolutist monarchies in most other European countries, and theimportance of international trade also contributed to the liberal and tolerant climate inAmsterdam (Roegholt, 1997; Mak, 2005).

Parallel to Amsterdam’s emergence, the neighbouring towns and villages on the banks of theZaan river grew into what was probably the first modern industrial region worldwide. In atypically Dutch vein, the main engine behind this industrial revolution was the windmill. Avery significant year for that development was 1596. A new type of windmill was invented inwhich the turning of the windmill sails set a saw in motion. The first sawmill was bought byan entrepreneur in Zaandam and it became the basis of a flourishing wood processingindustry. Initially the sawmills worked mostly for Amsterdam traders, but soon the Zaanregion started to produce its own wooden products as well. The most successful offspring of

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those sawmills was shipbuilding. The Zaan region rose to international fame when theRussian tsar Peter the Great travelled to Zaandam to study its shipbuilding industry. However,the mills were also increasingly used for other products like the ennobling of seeds to oil andpaint ingredients. Later in the 17th century, mills were also used to peel corn and producegroats. This was the start of a long tradition of the Zaan region in food production andlogistics that lasts until today (Woudt, 2006). The Zaan area counted hundreds of mills inthose days, of which only a few are still left today, mostly with a tourist function.

3.1.2 The Golden Age: from city to metropolis

As a rapidly growing and increasingly important trade centre, Amsterdam entered the 17th

century, a century that gave the city a profile it actually never lost since (Olsen, 2000; Mak,2003). The second half of the 17th century was the Golden Age for the city and one might saythat the city also was a global city ‘avant la lettre’ at that time. It was among the world’s mostimportant international trade centres. The mansions along the canals still illustrate the wealthaccumulated by the 17th century local merchants. Related to its important position ininternational trade, Amsterdam showed a wide array of activities. Insurance companiesfinancing the expensive international shipping expeditions, traffic firms, harbour activities,the map-making industry (the most famous cartographers lived and worked in Amsterdam)are only a few of many activities contributing to the importance and wealth of Amsterdam inthose days. The city became a major trade and finance centre in Europe.

In 1602, the Dutch East Indies Company (VOC) was founded. It was probably the world’sfirst multinational corporation and the first company with shareholders. The VOC was thespin in the web of Dutch colonial expansion in Asia, especially in the area now known asIndonesia. Other pioneering institutions set up shortly afterwards were the Exchange (1611)and the Money Exchange (1611). The Exchange enabled the spreading of risk in investments;the Money Exchange provided a reliable calculation of currencies coming in from across theglobe. The first traces of giro bank transfers could also be found in Amsterdam (VanStipriaan, 2006). The Dutch Republic rapidly became very rich from colonial trade andAmsterdam as its main trading centre profited most of all. In 1621 a second colonial tradecorporation, the West Indies Company (1621), was set up to organise trade with NewAmsterdam (later becoming New York), the Caribbean and Brazil. After finally settling peacewith Spain in 1648, the Dutch Republic emerged as one of the leading world powers.Amsterdam became a metropolis and enjoyed explosive growth in wealth and populationthroughout the 17th century. Especially the second half of that century, known as the GoldenAge, left its marks on the city. The city was expanded with the famous ring of canals for therich merchants and gentry, and with the Jordaan district for the working class. A series ofartificial islands was laid out in the river IJ to accommodate the rapid growth of harbouractivities. Amsterdam became an important arts and cultural centre in those days, too. Manypainters that now still have a prominent presence in museums across the world choseAmsterdam as their home base: Rembrandt van Rijn, Johannes Vermeer, Paulus Potter, JanSteen etc. But also other art forms and the sciences had their prominent representatives inAmsterdam. The internationally best known examples are the philosophers Descartes andSpinoza (Roegholt, 1997) and the cartographer Blaeu (Mak, 2005). Amsterdam’s fame as a

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tolerant city attracted many of these artists and scientists. Van Stipriaan (2006, p. 13) citesRené Descartes, residing in Amsterdam between 1629 and 1635 and praising the unlimitedfreedom he enjoyed: “(…) I could live my entire life here without being noticed by anyone. Inwhat other country could one enjoy such perfect freedom, sleep so quietly without fear ofpoisoning and betrayal, where has been more left of the innocence of our fathers.”

What nowadays looks as a monumental ‘grand design’ has probably been developed withoutany master plan in mind. Taverne (1978) argues that the Amsterdam canal zone got its typicalshape mainly out of pragmatic reasons. The semi-circles suited military requirements best;after all, the Dutch Republic was still at war with Spain until the Westphalia treaty of 1648,and became involved in several wars with France and Spain in the decades afterwards. Thecanal zone also provided an optimal access to the river IJ and the sea. A closer look at thecanal houses also demonstrates that each house is designed individually rather than as part ofa street or neighbourhood plan. The Jordaan as well was developed very pragmatically byfollowing the original pattern of polder ditches. Mak (2003) and Olsen (2000) note a strikingdifference with other prominent European cities of those days: the absence of grand squaresand impressive monuments or buildings, the town hall on Dam square (now the Royal Palace)being the only exception to that rule. “Amsterdam rejected both centralized planning andprofitless display. (…) The layout of the new streets and waterways did not reflectRenaissance theories of urban design, much less the more dramatic proposals of baroquetown planners. (…) That from such practical motives were created some of the mostenchanting urban environments of that or any age has misled scholars into assumingfarsighted urban planning.” (Olsen 2000, p. 238)

Amsterdam had become very dominant in the Dutch Republic as a whole and certainly in itsimmediate surroundings. Still, most of the area surrounding Amsterdam shared in its wealthor managed to get its own fair share of the Dutch Golden Age. Amsterdam merchantsinvested in the reclamation of polders, for example, and several cities on the banks of theZuiderzee flourished as harbours and trade centres. The Zaan area kept growing as theindustrial heart of Holland, with most of its industries being tightly networked with theAmsterdam trade and financial sectors. It could be described as the “free enterprise domain ofthe Amsterdam trade metropolis” (Pellanders & Vreeman, 2004). Haarlem developed as thesecond largest and second most important city in the region. Like Amsterdam it managed toprofit from a considerable influx of migrants from Flanders. The Flemish migrants built up atextile industry and brought the city its most famous painter. Frans Hals was the son ofFlemish migrants. Another emerging industry was printed media. The world’s first dailynewspaper was published in Haarlem in 1656.

3.1.3 The 18th and early 19th century: losing power and prestige

“The history of the Netherlands, and that of Amsterdam in particular, reminds us (…) of thelife of a writer who produces his best book in his youth. Everything that comes after isovershadowed by that huge, one-off success (…)” (Mak 2003, p. 35)

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In the 18th century, the Dutch Republic gradually lost status as a world power to England andFrance. The growth of Amsterdam stagnated as a consequence and the city lost quite someinternational prestige, too. After an extension of the canal zone across the river Amstel in1663, the city stopped growing both spatially and soon also in population size (Wagenaar,1998). Reasons for this stagnation included the lack of innovation in the Dutch politicalsystem and the Dutch economy, the continuous power struggles and lack of centralisedauthority within the Dutch Republic, the problematic sea access of the Amsterdam harbour,and the lack of a large and economically powerful hinterland compared to emerging rivalslike London and Hamburg (Mak, 2005). Amsterdam remained a rich and important city,though. In 1795, Amsterdam was the 5th city of Europe with 221,000 inhabitants, afterLondon, Paris, Vienna, and Naples. The nation’s second largest city, Rotterdam, only hadabout a quarter of that population, and The Hague even only one sixth (Van EngelsdorpGastelaars & Ostendorf, 1994). For 18 years, Amsterdam became the capital and royalresidence during the French occupation. When the French left in 1813, the Netherlandsbecame an independent country again. Amsterdam was formally still the capital, but all theactual political capital functions moved back to The Hague. Amsterdam had to settle foreconomic, financial and cultural capital functions. The city was very densely populated, sincepopulation growth until the mid-19th century had to be accommodated within the tight citywalls.

Amsterdam, like the Netherlands as a whole, almost entirely missed the Industrial Revolutionand became a relatively impoverished and old-fashioned city. This is not to say that theAmsterdam region did not have manufacturing, but it was a rapidly ageing type ofmanufacturing. While England built up an entirely new type of industrial production based onsteam and coal, the industries of the Amsterdam region still relied mostly on wind and waterpower. Within the region, the larger-scale industrial production was mainly located in theZaan area, while Amsterdam only had smaller industries. In retrospect it is remarkable howlong the Zaan industrial complex held on to its old-fashioned windmills, while the steamengine had long caused a revolutionary progress across the sea in England. Even when theIndustrial Revolution finally reached the Netherlands, Amsterdam was much less affected byit than for example Rotterdam. By implication, the population growth during the heyday ofindustrialisation in the Netherlands in the second half of the 19th century was also moremoderate compared to cities like Rotterdam. The Hague, the political capital, grew muchfaster as well, implying that both cities were rapidly closing the gap to Amsterdam. This wasthe time when the ‘division of labour’ between the four largest cities of the Netherlands cameabout. Amsterdam mainly developed as the cultural and financial centre of the Netherlands;Rotterdam was the largest harbour city, growing particularly rapidly towards the end of the19th century; The Hague was the political centre and the focus of international diplomaticrelations; and Utrecht became the focal point of national infrastructure networks.

Other cities in the Amsterdam region were more successful in attracting and creating modernindustries. This is especially true for Haarlem. After seeing its population more than halvedbetween 1622 (40,000) and 1815 (17,000), the city managed to attract quite some industrialcompanies in the second half of the 19th century. The main specialisations were railwayequipment, machinery, metal and printing. Haarlem’s very early connection to the emergingnational railway system was certainly helpful in reviving its economy; the first Dutch railway

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ran between Haarlem and Amsterdam and was opened in 1839. On the other hand, thereclamation of the Haarlemmermeer polder weakened Haarlem’s strategic position, sincetraffic between Amsterdam and cities like The Hague did not have to follow the detour viaHaarlem anymore. Slowly but surely, Haarlem’s residential function became dominant at theexpense of its economic function (Meulenbelt, 2003). The Zaan area became more and morespecialised in the food industry. Windmills were finally replaced by steam engines and theopening of the north Sea Canal gave industrialisation in the Zaan area an additional boost(Woudt 2006). At the same time, southwest of Amsterdam, a significant reclamation tookplace that would appear to have a huge impact on the metropolitan economy in the 20th

century. The Haarlemmermeer had emerged when three smaller lakes connected throughflooding in the 16th century. The lake became an increasing threat to the neighbouring citiesAmsterdam and Haarlem. In 1839 the reclamation of the Haarlemmermeer was thereforestarted. The area remained mostly agricultural until the military airbase Schiphol was openedin 1917 (Bontje 2005).

3.1.4 Amsterdam’s ‘Second Golden Age’, the AUP, and World War II

Towards the end of the 19th century, however, Amsterdam appeared to be a successful city ineconomic terms once more. Roughly between 1870 and Word War I, Amsterdam enjoyed a‘second Golden Age’, which again was tightly connected to colonial trade. In the 1870s, thestate monopoly on investments and trade with the Dutch East Indies was ended and privateinvestors were allowed to buy stocks in this trade. The opening of the Suez Canal enabled afaster and easier trading route with the East Indies, and German unification gave a significantimpulse to the economy of its western neighbour the Netherlands. The exploitation of thecolonies (tea, tobacco, coffee, etc.) was intensified, and international trade took advantage ofthe freedom created by the liberal market-oriented regime. Important waterway connections(North Sea Canal and later the Amsterdam-Rhine Canal) were either improved or establishedaround the turn of the century (Wagenaar, 1998; Wagenaar, 2003a). Of great significance wasthat Amsterdam already housed two universities, the University of Amsterdam (established in1632) and the Free University (established in 1880). The city offered good opportunities forthe development of a wide variety of manufacturing industries: beer breweries, clothing,vehicle production (cars until 1927, planes until 1951), metal, diesel engines etc. Remarkably,most of these industries reached only medium or small sizes. Most of the larger-scalemanufacturing was lost to other cities. The shipbuilding industry of Amsterdam and the Zaanarea, for example, largely moved to Rotterdam, where more innovative people adopted newproduction methods, applying iron instead of wood. The major exception to this rule was theNSM shipyard, the second largest worldwide in the 1930s (Mak 2005). Economic crises after1920, culminating in the 1929 crash at the stock exchange, resulted in new declines, amongstothers in the diamond and textile industry. In 1897 still about half of the world’s productionof diamonds was tooled in Amsterdam, predominantly by Jewish workers; in 1929,Amsterdam’s position was reduced to less than twenty per cent. Around Amsterdam, somelarger industrial complexes were developed contrary to the developments in the region’s corecity. The Zaan area lost most of its shipbuilding, but built up new industries like the machineindustry, and modernised its food production

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Economic growth went along with rapid population growth. Finally the city walls werebroken down and city extensions beyond the outermost canal around the inner city wereallowed. Urban planning was still in its infancy in Amsterdam; therefore the lion’s share ofthese city extensions were realised in a piecemeal speculative process. This resulted indensely built and somewhat chaotic areas like De Pijp and Oud-West: once built for workingclass and lower middle class people, but nowadays very popular as residential, working andleisure locations for the ‘creative class’. Some decades later, when urban design and planninghad been accepted as local government responsibility, a more luxury southern extension (OudZuid) was realised, establishing the high status axis southward from the inner city canals thatstill exists today. Starting in the early 20th century, an increasing part of new housingconstruction was social housing, resulting from the political dominance of the socialdemocrats in the city council throughout most of that century. It is striking that just like in thefirst Golden Age (the late 17th century), Amsterdam did not follow the urban design exampleof most other large cities on the European continent. Some canals were filled in andtransformed into new streets, and some small ‘breakthroughs’ were made to facilitate inner-city traffic. But plans to embellish Amsterdam with boulevards in Parisian, Hausmannic stylemet fierce political opposition and were never realised (Wagenaar, 1998).

The ‘fin de siecle’ brought a first wave of sub-urbanisation to the Amsterdam area. In earliercenturies, the richest Amsterdam merchants could already afford to buy summer estates at theAmstel riverside south of the city, or in the woody and hilly Gooi area east of the city. Withthe expansion of the rail network and the introduction of regional tramways, a permanentresidence in the suburbs became attractive for the wealthy Amsterdammers fed up with livingin a rapidly crowding city. Around 1880, several communities in the Gooi area and on theedge of the dunes around Haarlem started to expand. Most of the new residents came fromAmsterdam and they often kept working in the city. The first traces of the Amsterdam dailyurban system, mainly based on public transport, were established (Schmal, 2003). At the sametime, however, population growth and spatial expansion of the city of Amsterdam continued.Around 1900, Amsterdam’s population was about half a million; in 1925 more than 700,000(Mak 2005). The spatial expansion of Amsterdam was made possible by annexations ofneighbouring municipalities in 1877, 1896 and 1921.Urban population growth continued untilthe early 1960s. It was only interrupted by the events of World War II. Virtually the entireJewish population of Amsterdam, and therewith an important part of the city elite, wasdeported by the Nazis. Only 5,000 of Amsterdam’s 80,000 Jews survived the war, and theJewish community never recovered. Still, Amsterdam soon managed to return to its growthand modernisation path. The city kept expanding rapidly following the programme of thefamous 1934 expansion plan. The Amsterdam Expansion Plan was based on the CIAMprinciples of the ‘functional city’. It was the result of an extensive statistical analysis andprognosis of population development, following the then dominant planning philosophy‘survey before plan’. Remarkably this plan remained virtually unchallenged as the mainguiding document for Amsterdam urban planning for three decades (Van der Cammen & DeKlerk, 1996).

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3.2 1950-1980: sub-urbanisation, modernisation and citizen protest

Amsterdam’s population growth could largely be catered for by the planned extension areas,nowadays known as the Western Garden Cities and Buitenveldert. However, mass sub-urbanisation dramatically changed that picture in the 1960s and 1970s. In 1959 Amsterdamreached its maximum number of inhabitants: about 960,000. Soon after, the expansion ofspace consumption of households and firms, growing personal mobility and car-ownershipand increased affluence allowed for extensive suburbanisation processes directed to adjacentmunicipalities. Between 1960 and 1985 the Amsterdam population was reduced with 200,000inhabitants net. This mass suburbanisation was further encouraged by the national spatialdevelopment policy of the 1960s and 1970s, stimulating the development of new andexpanded towns around the large cities to cater for the increasingly suburban housingpreference (Bontje, 2003). In the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area, this policy resulted in largeexpansions of Alkmaar, Hoofddorp, Hoorn, Huizen and Purmerend, and the emergence of twoentirely new cities in the recently reclaimed Flevoland: Lelystad and Almere.

This national urbanisation policy of ‘clustered deconcentration’ was initially warmlywelcomed (and even encouraged) by Amsterdam. Despite its series of expansions,Amsterdam was still a quite crowded city, and further space for expansion was scarce. Thenegative impact of the new towns on Amsterdam’s development was only realised when thepolicy was already in full swing. The massive loss of population for the city was notanticipated. The modernist expansion area of Bijlmermeer, built on annexed land in the late1960s and early 1970s in Le Corbusier-style, did not attract the middle-class families it wasplanned for. The positive international migration balance during these years (most guestworkers from Turkey and Morocco eventually settled in Amsterdam, as well as manySurinamese who preferred to live in the Netherlands after Surinam independence in 1975)was clearly insufficient to balance the huge outflow of young middle class families to thesuburbs. Inner-city living had a very negative image and especially the densely built extensionareas of the late 19th century fell victim to decay.

Moreover, modernist city planning almost destroyed vital parts of the historic inner city.There were plans for highways through the inner city, to fill canals and turn them into roads,to redevelop parts of the inner city into a large-scale office area, and to demolishneighbourhoods like the Jordaan. Citizen protest stopped this modernisation programme moreor less half-way (the highways had reached the inner city edge already and the subway wasalready under construction) and helped to save the unique character of Amsterdam’s innercity. Radical anti-establishment groups like the ‘Provos’ in the late 1960s and the squatmovement in the 1970s and 1980s played a significant role in this change of urban renewalpolicies (Mamadouh, 1992; Pruijt, 2003; Uitermark, 2004). Urban renewal changed fromdemolition and new construction into renovation and restoration. Decaying inner-cityneighbourhoods transformed into attractive living and working environments. This change ofcourse eventually also helped to stem the tide of sub-urbanisation and to restore Amsterdam’sattractiveness as a place to live and work. The Amsterdam inner city will very likely soon beadded to UNESCO’s World Heritage list. A significant part of renovated and newlyconstructed dwellings in and close to the inner city consisted of social rental housing. It mustbe added, though, that the most attractive locations, like impressive former storage houses

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along the canals and the IJ river, generally transformed into expensive owner-occupiedapartment buildings. Even a city known for its generous offer of affordable rental housing likeAmsterdam did not escape from market-led, and partly also government-led gentrification(Cortie & Van de Ven, 1981; Wagenaar, 2003b)

The economic growth path of Amsterdam after World War II initially diverted considerablyfrom the general Dutch path of industrialisation. While industrial production in theNetherlands reached higher levels than ever before, Amsterdam experienced an expansion inbusiness and consumer services instead. In Amsterdam, manufacturing already peaked in1950 and declined ever since. Business and consumer services gained from their good startingposition, since they were embedded in an already established service economy (finance,trade), and expanded rapidly. Still, it took until the late 1980s until Amsterdam could becalled an economically flourishing and internationally competitive city once more. Beforethis, Amsterdam had to deal with a severe economic crisis which meant the end of most ofwhat was still left of manufacturing in the city. The last remaining shipyards, for example, leftthe city in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The economic crisis hit the entire AmsterdamMetropolitan Area hard. The steel industry in IJmuiden, the machine and printing industry inHaarlem, and the food industry in the Zaan area all faced severe job losses and severalcompanies could not escape from bankruptcy. This transformation from a Fordist to a post-Fordist economy was not immediately recognised in national, provincial and local politics.For example, the newly founded municipality of Zaanstad, a merger of Zaandam with sixneighbouring villages in 1975, was supposed to offer sufficient political and administrativepower to enable large-scale industrialisation. A second reason for this municipal merger wasto enable large-scale housing locations for suburbanites from Amsterdam. Zaanstad wasplanned to grow into a city of about 250,000 people. The new municipality bought largeparcels of land and invested heavily in infrastructure. In retrospect we can now say that allthis happened too late: the oil crisis accelerated the process of de-industrialisation; local andenvironmental protest groups became increasingly influential supported by the emergingenvironmental consciousness in the Netherlands; and a changed urban renewal regime inAmsterdam already started to stem the tide of ‘city flight’. Zaanstad aimed too high and wentbankrupt before the ambitious expansion plans could be realised (Pellanders & Vreeman,2004).

3.3 1980-2000: the resurgent metropolis?

Amsterdam and its Metropolitan Area (and actually the Netherlands as a whole) entered the1980s in a quite depressing state. Unemployment grew fast along with rising social tensionsand environmental challenges. Amsterdam as the country’s largest city and cultural centrewas the natural stage of mass demonstrations against social and economic reforms, nucleararms, and other unpopular measures of the Dutch government. The city had built up anotorious reputation as a centre of anarchist movements since the 1960s. The most active andinfluential of those movements in the late 1970s and early 1980s was the squat movement.The inner city of Amsterdam frequently turned into a battlefield between the squat movementand the police. The squatters had managed to occupy quite some complexes in the inner cityand the 19th-century neighbourhoods. Attempts of the military police to evict these complexes

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met fierce and often violent resistance of the squatters. The heyday of the squat movementwas 30 April 1980 when the squatters disturbed the inauguration of the Dutch queen Beatrixand fought the military police in violent, almost war-like clashes. Several local historians andgeographers have described the period between 1965 and 1985 as the ‘Twenty-Year CityWar’ (Mak, 2005; Mamadouh, 1992; Pruijt, 2003; Uitermark, 2004).

In retrospect the heyday of the squatters may also have been the start of their demise. Thebroad popular support and sympathy for the initial goal of the squatters (alleviating thehousing shortage, especially for lower income groups) decreased significantly when the squatscene “became enchanted with violence and counter-violence” (Mak, 2005, p. 391).Mamadouh (1992) analysed the squatters and earlier urban social movements and theirinterrelationships. The roots of the squat movement were clearly already established in the1960s (Provo) and were also inspired by the anti-subway riots on Nieuwmarkt square in 1975.Amsterdam finally wanted to follow the example of many other world cities and expand itspublic transport network with subways. At the same time, a highway network was plannedcutting through the historic heart of the city. A large part of the inner city threatened to bedemolished to make way for the subway and the highway. The subway has indeed beenconstructed, but the highway could be stopped half-way thanks to the urban socialmovements. It meant a turnaround in urban renewal policy: the path of modernisation and thecar-friendly city was left and traded for a philosophy of urban restoration and the compactcity. Formerly run-down parts of the city like the Jordaan and the 19th-century ring have beenconsiderably upgraded through the urban renewal programme. In addition, former industrialand harbour sites were transformed into attractive residential areas for urban-oriented middle-calls singles, childless couples and families. Following the Amsterdam and Rotterdamexample, the Dutch national planners also left their ‘clustered deconcentration’ philosophyand turned to a compact city programme. At the edges of the large and medium-sized cities,new large-scale housing programmes were started. For the Amsterdam region, this resultedamongst others in large construction sites at the south-western and north-eastern edge ofAmsterdam, in the Haarlemmermeer polder, in Almere, in Zaanstad and in Purmerend.Amsterdam partly returned to its centuries-old expansion tradition: one of its newestexpansions, IJburg, is built on artificial islands. Earlier examples of this expansion strategyinclude the former harbour area in the 17th century and the central railway station in the late19th century.

All this has dramatically changed the image of Amsterdam as a residential environment. Thecity population finally stopped declining and has grown almost continuously since 1985(Musterd et al., 2006). Along with urban renewal and regeneration, another important factorbehind this socio-demographic turnaround was foreign migration. Successive groups ofmigrants to the Netherlands have most often chosen the four largest Dutch cities as theirpreferred residence: ‘guest workers’ from the Mediterranean in the 1960s and early 1970s;Surinamese in the 1970s; refugees and asylum seekers in the 1980s and 1990s. The lion’sshare of the guest workers did not just stay for a few years as initially planned, but becamepermanent residents and formed or reunified their families in the Netherlands. Amsterdam hasattracted significant migrant communities throughout its history, but never to such an extentas in the last four decades. Next to considerable Moroccan, Surinamese, and Turkishcommunities, and a recently emerging Ghanaian community, also a lot of West-European,

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North American and Japanese migrants have found their way to Amsterdam and itsMetropolitan Area. Outside of Amsterdam, Haarlem and Zaanstad attracted many Turks aswell when the guest worker recruitment started in the 1960s. In the 1990s, especiallySurinamese started to suburbanise, in particular to the still rapidly growing new town ofAlmere. More in general, in recent years we can speak of an ‘urbanisation of the suburbs’ interms of population composition (Musterd et al., 2006).

This ‘urbanisation of the suburbs’ also took place with respect to economic development.New concentrations of employment, most often in either offices or logistical complexes,popped up at the city edges of Amsterdam and Haarlem and in suburban places likeHoofddorp and Diemen. More and more companies preferred highway locations, especially ifthey would also be close to Schiphol Airport. This turned Amsterdam’s southern edge into themost dynamic growth zone of the Metropolitan Area (Bontje & Burdack, 2005; Musterd etal., 2006). Schiphol was the most prominent growth engine behind the rather spectaculareconomic resurgence of the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area since the late 1980s. The airportitself became the largest employment concentration in the Metropolitan Area outside ofAmsterdam and Haarlem. Schiphol transformed from a passenger and freight hub into amultifunctional complex, adding hotels, offices and a retail and leisure centre (SchipholPlaza). It has frequently been described as an ‘airport city’ (Burghouwt 2005) or‘cityport’(Van Wijk 2006).

The rapid economic growth of (former) suburbs did not mean that the central city Amsterdamwas losing economic strength. On the contrary, Amsterdam managed to pick its fair share ofregional economic growth as well. Most of this growth, as said, took place on the city edge,but for a significant part the growth locations were still on Amsterdam’s municipal territory.Examples include ‘Teleport’ at the western city edge, the Amstel business area in the east ofthe city, and Amsterdam-Southeast. Ajax moved its football stadium to Amsterdam-Southeastand around this Arena stadium, a prestigious office location and an ‘urban entertainmentcentre’ emerged. The most prominent location, however, is the South Axis. Until the mid-1990s, Amsterdam was not planning on a city-edge CBD at all. Instead a new CBD wassupposed to be formed at the banks of the river IJ. For a long time the city planners largelyignored the preference of the Amsterdam finance, insurance and real estate cluster for alocation on the southern part of the ring road A10. It took the decision of a large multinationalbank, ABN Amro, to move to the southern ring road to change the mind of the city planners.The opening of the ABN Amro headquarters in 1996 was the start of an increasinglyambitious programme for the ‘South Axis’ (Ploeger, 2004). In the next 20 to 25 years, a mixof offices, apartments, retail, leisure, cultural and sports facilities is supposed to be realised.With the World Trade Centre (opened in 1985) and the headquarters of ABN Amro, ING andseveral law firms, the first seeds of such a new city centre have been sewn.

The above looks like a success story, but Amsterdam and its Metropolitan Area also had toface some failures and disappointments in the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s. First, in 1986,the attempt to win the race for the 1992 Olympics failed dramatically. This was related to afanatic and well-organised resistance movement of local citizens and NGOs. Second, in 1995,the attempt to create a city province was blocked in a referendum. An impressive 95% votedagainst the city province. Especially the administrative consequence for Amsterdam was

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disliked by most voters. Amsterdam would be split up in boroughs and lose its central cityadministration, and therewith (in the view of many voters) its city identity. Remarkably, onlyAmsterdam citizens were allowed to vote in the referendum; the other municipalities involveddid not take part in it. Still, it would probably not have made much difference for the result,since most neighbouring municipalities did not like the idea of merging with Amsterdam intoa city province at all. A third development that influenced regional economic developmentnegatively, was the worldwide ‘burst of the ICT bubble’ around 2000. The AmsterdamMetropolitan Area, and probably most of all places like Hoofddorp and Almere, thanked aconsiderable part of their economic growth to the ICT sector in the late 1990s. After 2000, thespectacular ICT-based growth of the Metropolitan Area appeared to be much shorter-livedthan expected. One of the results was that office development in Hoofddorp, Almere andseveral city-edge locations of Amsterdam (especially ‘Teleport’) turned out to be way toooptimistic. Within a few years, office vacancies amounted to about 20% in the region as awhole and up to 25% in the least popular locations. This also frustrated the ambitious plans ofAlmere to significantly upgrade its city centre and become a more complete city for someyears (Bontje, 2004). With the recent economic upsurge of the Netherlands as a whole and theAmsterdam Metropolitan Area in particular, however, the ambitions of the turn of the centurymight be realised after all. In the next chapter, we will explore the most recent developmentand current situation of the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area in more detail.

3.4 Conclusions

Amsterdam has been the dominant city of the Netherlands since the 16th century, the so-called‘Golden Age’, when Dutch colonial trade flourished and Amsterdam was the main tradecentre. The city expanded rapidly and developed into a centre of arts and culture and the restof the region either benefited from Amsterdam’s wealth or developed its own path.Amsterdam and its region lost power in the 18th and 19th centuries, however, due to stagnatinggrowth and by not adapting to the Industrial Revolution, and was gradually overtaken byrivals in other parts of Europe. Only at the end of the 19th century, the economy started torecover again, once more fuelled by colonial trade, and annexations were needed in order toexpand the city. Although the first suburbanisation already started at the end of the 19th

century, the phenomenon rapidly gained ground in the 1960s. Clustered de-concentrationbecame the new planning strategy, but this further undermined the position of the core cityand the population decreased further. Also economically, the city had a weak positionbetween 1950 and 1980.

The 1980s were a turning point for the city and its region. Due to urban renewal and thecompact-city policy, the city regained its attractiveness as a residential location. Increasingimmigration of Western and non-Western immigrants further fuelled population growth. Alsoeconomically the region recovered, but rather than a strong core city with residential suburbs,the region started to develop into a polycentric metropolis with different economic sub-centres. Although the last two decades of the 20th century did not go without disappointments,the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area seems to have regained a strong position as a service andlogistical hub at the start of the 21st century.

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4 The Amsterdam Metropolitan Area in the early 21st century

4.1 Social situation

4.1.1 Population distribution and growth

More than 2 million people (13% of the Dutch population) are living in the Amsterdamregion. The municipality of Amsterdam and the regions Amstel-Meerlanden and RegioWaterland+ together form Greater Amsterdam, which has 55% of the total regionalpopulation (O+S, 2004). The largest sub-region is Amsterdam with 743,000 inhabitants(34%), followed by Amstel-Meerlanden (301,875 inhabitants; 14%) and Gooi- andVechtstreek (241,816 inhabitants; 11%) (figure 6). The population density of the whole regionis 1,489 inhabitants per square kilometre but there are large differences in density betweendifferent sub-regions. Amsterdam has the highest density with no less than 4,465 inhabitantsper square metre, but especially Waterland and Amstel-Meerlanden have a very lowpopulation density (less than 1,169 per square kilometre) as a result of rural areas, recreationareas and nature reserves that are located within their borders (O+S, 2004).

Figure 6: The population distribution across the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area (Source: O+S, 2004)

The total population of the region has grown with 6% (114,353 inhabitants) between 2000and 2006, which is higher than the average growth for the Netherlands (+2%). Amsterdam’spopulation growth is more or less stagnating, while the rest of the region is growing faster.Between 2000 and 2006, the growth rate for the core city was less than 2%. Within the cityborders, the limits of growth have been reached and new construction can only take placewithin the new borough of IJburg, which is located on newly-made land within the IJ Lake,and by means of physical restructuring and re-zoning. The modest growth rates for

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Amsterdam are also explained by the lack of affordable high-quality housing and of (high-quality) big apartments for families, which has led to many families moving out of the city(O+S, 2006; Bontje et al., forthcoming).

Growth thus has to be accommodated within the region (figure 7). The highest growth figuresoccurred within the new town of Almere, which has grown from 0 to 270,000 inhabitants infour decades time and with 25% since 2000 alone. This town is located in the province ofFlevoland, which consists of newly-made land (polders) on the place where there used to bethe Zuiderzee. This province was created in order to compensate for the lack of building spacein the metropolitan areas of Amsterdam and Utrecht. Half of all new constructions take placein Almere or in Haarlemmermeer, which has a similar role within the region. Amstel-Meerlanden, in which Haarlemmermeer is located, therefore has the second highest growthrate between 2000 and 2006 (+10%). Also IJmond has an above-average growth-rate (+9%),but this is partly because new municipalities were added to this sub-region in 2002. The onlysub-region where the population has declined, although not drastically, between 2000 and2006 is Agglomeration Haarlem: -0.2% (O+S, 2006).

Sub-region 2000 2006Change(%)

Almere 142,765 178,466 25.0Amstel-Meerlanden 273,920 301,875 10.2IJmond 172,495 188,582 9.3Waterland 155,370 164,517 5.9Het Gooi en Vechtstreek 232,669 241,816 3.9Zaanstreek 150,964 156,066 3.4Amsterdam 731,289 743,027 1.6Agglomeration Haarlem 217,434 216,910 -0.2Total 2,076,906 2,191,259 5.5

Figure 7: Population growth rates in the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area (Source: O+S, 2006)

The Amsterdam region has a slightly higher birth rate than the rest of the country: 13.2children per 1,000 inhabitants, compared to 12.4 nationally. Because of the large number of(young) families living there, Almere has the highest birth rate (16.3). However, in terms ofexternal migration, 743 more people left the region than moved into the region in 2005. Thecity of Amsterdam had the largest population loss (-4,295 people in 2005), while Almere(+1,679) and Amstel-Meerlanden (+2,196) have the largest migration surpluses, probably as aresult of migration flows from Amsterdam. It is interesting to note in this respect that in thelast couple of years, relatively fewer native Dutch people have left Amsterdam, whilerelatively more non-western immigrants have out-migrated, especially to Almere (O+S, 2004;O+S, 2006).

The prognosis is that the population within the region will continue to grow with 2% until2010 and even with 6% until 2020. These figures are in line with the average growth figuresfor the Netherlands (respectively 2.5 and 5%). Again, the largest part of this growth will takeplace in Almere, which is expected to grow with 15% until 2010 and even with 45% until2020. The city has the ambition to grow into a city of 400,000 inhabitants, which would makeit the 4th city of the Netherlands. The only sub-regions that are expected to face a population

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decline are Haarlem, IJmond and Zaanstreek. It has to be noted that due to stricterimmigration laws, the expected growth is now smaller than it was in 2002, when a growth of12% until 2020 was still expected (O+S, 2004).

4.1.2 Demographic population composition

The shares of women and men are in balance, both within the region as a whole (49% men;51% women) and in all sub-regions. Regarding age-groups, the Amsterdam region iscomparable to the rest of the Netherlands: 29% is younger than 24, 57% is between 25 and 64years old and 14% is older than 64 (figure 8). Almere has the youngest population, with 31%of the population under 20 years old. This can be explained by the large number of familiesthat migrated from Amsterdam to Almere over the last decades, as a result of the lowerhousing prices and the quieter and more spacious living environments that can be found there.On the other hand, and also as a result of the aforementioned trend, Amsterdam has arelatively small share of children under 15 (16%). Also, more than half of all children thatwere born in Amsterdam belong to migrant groups. However, because the city has twouniversities, there is a relatively large student population, which brings the share of peoplebetween 15 and 24 to 12%, which is a bit more than the regional average of 11% (O+S,2006).

The core city has relatively many people between 25 and 49 (44%, compared to 39%regionally and 37% nationally) and relatively few people older than 50. Elderly people (olderthan 64) are especially living in the sub-regions Agglomeration Haarlem and Het Gooi enVechtstreek (both 17%), whereas the lowest share is found in Almere (7%). Amsterdam hasthe lowest ‘demographical pressure’ (48; compared to 57 for the region and 62 nationally),which implies that there are fewer inactive people (0-19 and 65+) in relation to the number ofactive people (20-64) (O+S, 2004; O+S, 2006).

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

0-14 15-24 25-49 50-64 65-79 80+

RSA regionAmsterdamNetherlands

Figure 8: The population distribution according to age (in % of total population) (Source: O+S, 2006)

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The prognosis is that the share of children in the Amsterdam region will grow with 2% until2010, but will decline slightly in the longer term: -0.1% until 2020. Only Amsterdam, Amstel-Meerlanden and especially Almere will continue to face an increase in the share of children.The number of active people (20-64) is not expected to grow much until 2010 (+1%) and until2020 (+2%), and growth for this group will only occur in Amstel-Meerlanden and Almere.The share of older people (over 64) will increase sharply: 35% until 2020, with the largestexpected growth in Almere (104%) and in Waterland (53%). The very high growth prognosisfor Almere can be explained by the fact that a large share of the dominant middle-agedcategory will be over 64 in 2020 (O+S, 2004).

Concerning the household composition, the region has relatively few households consisting ofmore than one person: 57% compared to 65% nationally in 2003. The only sub-region that haseven fewer households consisting of more than one person is the City of Amsterdam (43%),while the highest shares are found in Almere and Waterland (both 72%). Both of theseregions attract many families from Amsterdam. The fact that the two most urbanised sub-regions, Amsterdam (57%) and Agglomeration Haarlem (42%), have the highest shares ofsingle-family households indicates that individualisation mainly manifests itself in large cities(O+S, 2004; Musterd et al., 2006). In Amsterdam, the large share of single-person householdscan also be explained by the large student population. Until 2020, it is expected that the shareof single-family households will increase and the share of families with children will decreasein the region and all its sub-regions. The share of single-person households in Amsterdam isestimated at 63% in 2020, while the largest growth is expected in Zaanstreek: +11% (O+S,2004).

4.1.3 Ethnic population composition

A distinction needs to be made first between non-Western and Western immigrants, sincethese groups show different patterns and levels of concentration (figure 9). The share of non-Western immigrants within the total population of the region was 19% in 2006, which is 4%more than in 1996 and much higher than the Dutch average of 10%. Within this category, the3 main groups are the Surinamese (5% in the region and 9% in Amsterdam), the Moroccans(4% in the region and 9% in Amsterdam) and the Turkish (3% in the region and 5% inAmsterdam) (O+S, 2004; O+S, 2006).

Amsterdam Metropolitan Area NetherlandsSurinamese 9 5 2Turks 5 3 2Moroccan 9 4 2Total non-Western 34 19 10Total Western 14 11 9Dutch 51.5 70 81

Figure 9: Ethnic population composition (in %) (Source: O+S, 2006)

Non-Western immigrants and their descendants predominantly live in big cities: of all non-Western immigrants within the region, 60% lived in the City of Amsterdam in 2000, wherethey make up 34% of the total population. Within Amsterdam, this group is also concentrated

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in certain boroughs. Especially Southeast (Surinamese), Bos en Lommer and the WesternGarden Cities in the west (Moroccans and Turks) and East and Zeeburg in the east(Surinamese, Moroccan and Turkish) are showing above-average shares of non-Westernimmigrants (see figure 10).

Figure 10: The share of non-Western foreigners in Amsterdam boroughs, 1 January 2006 (Source: O+S,2006)

Also within boroughs, non-Western immigrants tend to live concentrated. For example: inZeeburg, especially Indische Buurt has a very high level of ethnic segregation (around 60%),while the neighbouring Eastern Harbour District has a share of less than 10%. Also in Oud-Zuid, where the total share is only 17%, there is also one part of De Pijp where the share isover 37%. A comparison of figures 10 and 11 shows that some districts score considerablyhigher or lower than the borough average (O+S, 2006). It should be noted that even thoughthere are neighbourhoods where the majority belongs to an ethnic minority, this majority is inno case formed by one single ethnic group. Furthermore, even in the most segregatedboroughs, at least 30% is ‘native Dutch’ (Musterd & Ostendorf, 2003).

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Figure 11: The share of non-Western foreigners in Amsterdam districts, 1 January 2006 (Source: O+S,2006)

However, ethnic minorities increasingly start to settle outside the core city as well (figure 12).Almere even had the strongest growth figures for non-Western foreigners within the regionbetween 1996 and 2003 (+161%). Also in the municipalities of Haarlemmermeer (+66%),Purmerend (+45%) and Zaanstad (+34%), the share of non-Western immigrants increasedsharply. Within the City of Amsterdam, the share has also increased in the same period, butwith “only” 21%. The Surinamese group, which has always focused mainly on theBijlmermeer district (Southeast) in Amsterdam, was the first ethnic group to make a housingcareer within the wider region. Large numbers of Suriname people moved to Almere, wherethe group currently makes up 10% of the total population. Also the Turkish and Moroccancommunities are showing an outward movement: they started in the inner-city districts ofAmsterdam, but later moved to the (western) outer boroughs and now also to other parts ofthe region. Again, Almere is a popular destination, but no large communities have beenformed yet (O+S, 2004; Musterd et al., 2006; http://www.almere.nl).

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Figure 12: Concentrations of non-Western immigrants in the Amsterdam region (Source: Musterd et al.,2006)

Figure 13: Concentrations of Western immigrants in the Amsterdam region (Source: Musterd et al, 2006)

Immigrants from other Western countries form 11% of the total regional population(105,000). This group predominantly belongs to the group of highly-educated, well-paidshort-term residents (‘expats’) and predominantly comes from Western Europe (especiallyGreat-Britain and Germany), North America and Japan (Musterd et al., 2006). Also for thisgroup, the share is the largest within the City of Amsterdam: 42% in 2006 and even 62% inGreater Amsterdam. Western immigrants form 13% of the total population of GreaterAmsterdam. Within the core city, this group focuses on the inner city and the southern part ofthe city. Outside Amsterdam, there is a clear concentration in Amstel-Meerlanden (12%),

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especially in the affluent parts of Amstelveen, and also in Haarlem and Het Gooi enVechtstreek (both 11%) (figure 13) (Musterd et al., 2006; O+S, 2006).

4.1.4 Socio-economic population composition

Of all 1.4 million people between 15 and 64, 68% belongs to the active population, which is abit more than average in the Netherlands (66%). There are no big differences within theregion (O+S, 2004). The active population is evenly spread across the two sexes: men andwomen both make up 50% of the active population. Also, there are no large differencesbetween the different age categories: 39% of the active population is between 15 and 34, 26%is between 35 and 45 and 35% is between 45 and 64. Figures about the hours worked are onlyavailable on the city level, where 56% of the active population has a full-time job (33 hours ormore per week). Also, no less than 43% is working as an independent entrepreneur or free-lancer (O+S, 2006).

Of the total active population in the region, 6% is unemployed, but there are differenceswithin the region. Amsterdam and Almere are the sub-regions with the largest shares ofunemployment (over 7%). In fact, 51% of all unemployed people within the region is living inthe City of Amsterdam. For the rest, apart from Zaanstreek, all sub-regions have lessunemployment than the regional average (figure 14).

Figure 14: Unemployed people in the Amsterdam region (in% of the population between 15 and 64), 1January 2006 (Source: O+S, 2006)

In the City of Amsterdam, around 8% of the active population is unemployed. The share ofunemployed people has shown some ups and downs since 2000s, in line with the developmentof the national economy, but the most recent development is positive. The number of

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unemployed people keeps on declining in Amsterdam, while the decline has come to astandstill on the national level. On the 1st of July 2006, 44,542 people were registered asunemployed and on the 1st of October, this number had already declined with 1,179 people.Within Amsterdam, above-average shares of unemployed people are found on the city edge,especially in the borough of Geuzenveld-Slotermeer (11%). Also Southeast, Bos en Lommer(both nearly 11%) and North (10%) have shares above the city-wide average. The city centre(6%) and the southern boroughs of Oud-Zuid (6%) and especially ZuiderAmstel (5%) havethe lowest scores (figure 15) (O+S, 2006).

Figure 15: Unemployed people in Amsterdam boroughs, 1 July 2006 (O+S, 2006)

There are clear differences between the sub-regions regarding the mean income per inhabitant(figure 16). The southern part of the region is clearly the richest part: Het Gooi en Vechtstreek(14,800 euros), Agglomeration Haarlem (14,200) and Amstel-Meerlanden (14,100) all havemean incomes way above the regional average of 13,200 euros. The City of Amsterdam has amean income of 12,800 euros, which is only a bit lower than the regional average. The onlysub-region that scores significantly below average is Almere, with a mean income of less than12,000 euros. Probably, this is the result of the in general lower prices of owner-occupieddwellings and the high share of social rented dwellings (O+S, 2006).

Income differences between the City of Amsterdam on the one hand and the rest of the regionon the other hand have decreased again over the last couple of years, after having increasedbetween 1960 and 1985 as a result of mass suburbanisation. In the early 1990s, the incomedifferences started to stabilize and since the late 1990s, as a result of gentrification, theincome difference between Amsterdam and its region declined again. This could be explainedby the attractive living environments that can be found in and around the city centre, whichmake the city attractive for professionals as a place to live (Burgers & Musterd, 2002;Musterd et al., 2006).

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Figure 16: Mean income per inhabitant in the Amsterdam region, 2003 (Source: O+S, 2006)

Figure 17 shows that the highest mean incomes of persons with an income of 52 weeks arefound in the city centre and in the south axis, where the most luxurious districts are located.Within the city centre, the western part with the famous canal belt is home to many high-income households. In the borough of Oud-Zuid, the high score is especially caused byApollobuurt (the richest neighbourhood of Amsterdam) and the districts alongsideVondelpark (Museumkwartier and Willemspark). The sub-district De Pijp is the poorest partof the borough, but also this district has increasingly become popular with young urbanprofessionals over the last couple of years, because of the central location in combination witha multicultural atmosphere and the presence of the famous Albert Cuyp street market withinits borders. Within ZuiderAmstel, especially the small neighbourhood just north ofAmsterdam South railway station is responsible for the high score, but also Buitenveldert isknown as a quiet middle-class residential area (O+S, 2006).

In the borough of Zeeburg, there is a very sharp contrast between the different parts of theborough. Especially the newly-built Eastern Harbour District (former port site) is home tomany young urban professionals and the new district of IJburg is attracting many families.The borough, however, also includes one of the poorest districts of Amsterdam, IndischeBuurt, because of which it does not belong to the richest category. Also in the borough ofOud-West, there is a contrast between the relatively poor northern part and a richer thanaverage southern part, which is adjacent to Vondelpark. Finally, also the newest part ofSlotervaart-Overtoomse Veld, Nieuw Sloten, has many middle-class households, while someother parts of the borough are known as a disadvantaged neighbourhood. For the rest, all

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boroughs score below the city average, with the lowest scores found in Geuzenveld-Slotermeer and Bos en Lommer (below 16,000 euros). It should, however, be noted that evensome boroughs that as a whole have a mean income below average have some (small) partswith an above-average score. This is the case in Westerpark, North, Southeast, Osdorp andEast/ Watergraafsmeer (O+S, 2006). This shows that income-segregation in Amsterdam is notreally strong and that most boroughs are in fact relatively mixed in terms of income.

Figure 17: Mean income of persons with an income of 52 weeks in Amsterdam boroughs, 2003 (Source:O+S, 2006)

The average spending power of all Amsterdam people is below the national average.However, when only the employed residents are included, the spending power is with 18,400euros higher than the national average in 2005. There are large differences between thedifferent boroughs in terms of spending power. Especially the central parts of the city and thesouthern boroughs have a high level of spending power, while in Geuzenveld-Slotermeer, Bosen Lommer and Southeast, 25% of the population is living below the poverty limit. In 2005,18% of all Amsterdam households (over 74,000) had an income of at most 105% of theminimum income and the number of people living in poverty for at least 3 years is increasing:65% of all persons with a minimum income in 2003 and 72% in 2005. However, partly as aresult of the Dutch welfare state, with a large emphasis on income redistribution, poverty inAmsterdam is not really extreme and can in no sense be compared to large American cities(Musterd & Ostendorf, 2003; O+S, 2006).

Finally, regarding the educational level of the active population, only data on the city region-level (thus excluding Haarlem and IJmond, but including Almere) are available. In the cityregion, 35% of the active population has had higher education (University or HBO degree)and the same number had middle education (MBO or HAVO/ VWO). Nearly one quarter ofthe active population has had lower education (VMBO), while 6% has only finished primaryschool. Within the region, there is a difference between Amsterdam and Amstelland on theone hand and the other sub-regions on the other hand. Amsterdam and Amstelland have thehighest shares of people with higher education- respectively 39% and 47% (30% regionally)-,

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while there are relatively few people with lower or middle education. The city of Amsterdamhas two faces, however. Apart from the relatively high share of highly-educated citizens, thecity also by far has the highest share of people with only primary education: 9% (O+S, 2006).Also the municipality of Haarlem has a relatively high share of highly-educated workers: 37%(http://www.haarlem.nl).

4.2 Economic situation

4.2.1 Recent economic results and developments

The 21st century started negatively for the Amsterdam region. After a period of very stronggrowth in the late 1990s (+7% in 1998), economic decline set in as a result of the internationalrecession, the SARS epidemic and the threat of terrorism. Employment in sectors that arehighly dependent on the state of the economy, like international trade, tourism and transportand communication declined; former growth sectors suddenly turned into declining sectors.Also office vacancy increased rapidly and still around 15% of all office space in the city ofAmsterdam does not have a renter (O+S, 2006).

On the other hand, the presence of those vulnerable sectors makes the region a strong playerin times of a growing world economy, and after 2004, the regional economy started to growagain. The most recent growth figures for the region are higher than those for the Netherlandsas a whole, with the strongest growth occurring in the sub-regions Almere, Amstel-Meerlanden, Zaanstreek and Waterland. The economic growth in the city of Amsterdam issimilar to the national growth figures, while Haarlem and IJmond are currently facing asetback after strong growth in 2004. The regional economic growth will be mainly the resultof increases in export, (international) investments and an increasing number of tourists(http://www.os.amsterdam.nl).

In the Amsterdam region, the total number of companies was over 154,000 in 2005, which is17% of all companies in the Netherlands. The total number of jobs in the region was nearly 1million in 2005 (15% of all Dutch employment). Although Amsterdam is still the dominanteconomic centre within the region, with around 40% of all regional firms and jobs, thisdominance has decreased somewhat as a result of sub-urbanisation of employment. This trendalready started in the 1990s, but has been intensified during the last couple of years. Someregional sub-centres are increasingly gaining importance as employment locations, especiallyAlmere (5% of all companies and jobs) and Haarlemmermeer (5% of all companies and even12% of all jobs). A result of this polycentric employment pattern is that complex commuter-patterns are emerging as well: not only from suburb-to-city and from city-to-suburb but alsofrom suburb-to-suburb (Musterd et al., 2006; O+S, 2006).

In Haarlemmermeer, Schiphol airport alone employs around 58,000 people and employmentat the airport has increased with 6% since 2001. Amsterdam Airport Schiphol is one of thetwo ‘mainports’ of the Dutch economy; the other one being the Port of Rotterdam. Thegrowth of Schiphol Airport is an important economic booster for the Dutch national economyand for the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area in particular. However, there are discussions about

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the limits of this growth. The airport is situated in a very densely populated part of the countryand already many people living in the area are facing inconvenience (especially noisepollution) because of the airport. Plans for enlargement of the airport can therefore alwayscount on a lot of resistance from the local population and also from nature organisations. Thedilemma is to either further expand Schiphol or to replace the airport. Also the North SeaCanal Area, stretching from Amsterdam to IJmuiden, is an important employment hub outsidethe core city, with a total number of jobs around 110,000 (O+S, 2006).

Still, even though it is no longer the only significant economic centre within the region, thereare no signs of an economic decline of the City of Amsterdam. Rather, within the city, a shiftof employment in producer services from the inner-city to the ‘highly accessible zones’ in thesouth (South Axis, Amstel and Arena Boulevard) and west (e.g. Sloterdijk) has occurred(Musterd et al., 2006). These zones are located around important railway stations andalongside the ring road A10 and are characterised by a concentration of high-rise officebuildings. The inner-city’s status as a Historical Preservation District has imposed severelimitations on new office construction there (Terhorst & Van de Ven, 2003), but by means ofplanned de-concentration, the city as a whole has been able to retain or even improve someelements of economic strength. While the financial sectors are increasingly concentrated onthe edge of the city, the inner-city is specialising in cultural and creative industries. Apartfrom that, the inner-city has also gained importance as a high-status residential location sincethe 1980s (Terhorst & Van de Ven, 2003; Musterd et al., 2006).

Sub-region Companies Working personsAmsterdam 0.3 0.2Waterland 10 6Amstel-Meerlanden 6 0.7Almere 31 15Het Gooi en Vechtstreek 10 -0.7Haarlem 13 -0.02IJmond 11 3Zaanstreek 23 -0.5Total AMA 8 1The Netherlands 6 -2

Figure 18: the change in the number of companies and working persons (in %) between 2001 and 2005(Source: O+S, 2006)

Between 2001 and 2005, the number of companies in the region has grown with 8%; a growthrate that is comparable to the national average (6%). All sub-regions have acknowledgedgrowth in the number of companies in this period, and especially Almere (+31%), Zaanstreek(+23%), Haarlem (+13%) and IJmond (+11%) have grown rapidly. The city of Amsterdamhas the smallest growth figures (+0.3%), but still attracts most companies in absolute terms.The number of jobs in the region also increased slightly between 2001 and 2005 (+1%),whereas employment declined on the national level during the same period: -2%. Almere hashad the largest increase in the number of jobs (+15%), followed by Waterland (+6%) andIJmond (+3%). In the city of Amsterdam and Amstel-Meerlanden, growth has been at most1%, while Het Gooi en Vechtstreek, Zaanstreek and Haarlem even experienced a decline inthe number of jobs (O+S, 2004; O+S, 2006).

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That the regional economy is on the rise again is illustrated by a ranking of 46 Europeancities, based on the economic growth prognosis between 2005 and 2010. In 2006, Amsterdamtook in a 14th place with similar growth figures as in London and Madrid, while one yearearlier, Amsterdam was still 18th; a few places below London and Madrid (figure 19). Thisrelatively strong growth can be explained by Amsterdam’s orientation on internationalmarkets, especially the United States and Asia, and the strong growth of the ICT and businessservices sectors that occurred during the last couple of years. In terms of employment growth,the prognosis for the Amsterdam region is even more favourable: the region ranks 5th, afterDublin, Helsinki, Budapest and Warsaw. However, it has to be noted that this increase inemployment can be influenced by the increasing share of part-time jobs in the Amsterdamregion (http://www.os.amsterdam.nl).

Figure 19: Economic growth prognosis 2005-2010 (in %) (Source: O+S)

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4.2.2 Specialisation

0% 8%

92%

1%14%

85%

3%

21%

76%

Total agriculture

Total industry

Total services

A: Amsterdam B: Amsterdam region C: The Netherlands

Figure 20: Employment per sector in the City of Amsterdam, the Amsterdam region and The Netherlandsin 2005 (Source: O+S, 2006)

The Amsterdam region is clearly a service-oriented region, as figure 20 illustrates. The twoservice sectors (commercial and non-commercial services) are by far the largest sectors in theregion. In 2005, 85% of all jobs within the region were in the service sectors and even 92% inthe city of Amsterdam. This is considerably higher than the national average of 76% (O+S,2006). On the other hand, agriculture is underrepresented in the Amsterdam region: only 1%of all jobs, compared to 3% nationally. That the share in Amsterdam is even close to zero is alogical outcome for a large city. Within the region, Waterland, Zaanstreek and Meerlandenshow the largest concentrations of agricultural employment (O+S, 2006; Bontje et al.,forthcoming). Figure 20 also clearly shows that the industrial sector (including construction)is much smaller in the region (14%), and especially in the city of Amsterdam (8%), than onthe national level (21%). The Amsterdam region includes a few traditional industrial areas,Zaanstad (food production) and IJmond (steel manufacturing), but also those areas haverapidly de-industrialised over the last decades (O+S, 2006; Bontje et al., forthcoming).

The largest sub-sectors within the service economy are ‘business services’ (15% of the activepopulation), ‘health and social work’ (14%) and ‘wholesale and retail trade and repairs’(13%). However, for all these sectors, the share in the Amsterdam region is still lower thanthe national average (figure 21). One sector in which the Amsterdam region is specialised incomparison to the national level is ‘transport, storage and communications’: 8%, compared to6% nationally. This is probably caused by the presence of Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, theseaports alongside the North Sea Canal and the large number of ICT firms within the region.Another specialisation is financial services (6%, compared to less than 4% nationally).Amsterdam is known as the financial capital of the Netherlands, and owes that name to thepresence of the Stock Exchange, the Dutch National Bank, the headquarters of several largebanks (ABN Amro, ING Bank and Rabobank) and the European headquarters of severalforeign banks (http://www.ez.amsterdam.nl). The financial sector and its clusters in the regionwill be described in more detail in Chapter 5. The Amsterdam region also seems to bespecialised in ‘other services’ (11%, compared to 4% nationally), probably because of the

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large number of cultural and leisure activities in the Amsterdam region. Especially the city ofAmsterdam has a relatively high score for this sub-sector: 15%. The city of Amsterdam,though not the region, has an overrepresentation of ‘education’: 8%, compared to 7%regionally and 7% nationally. This is probably caused by the large size of the city on the onehand and the presence of several institutes for higher education, including 2 large universities.The two universities of the city have nearly 43,000 students; 25,000 at the University ofAmsterdam (UvA) and 18,000 at the Free University (VU). Also, there are around 40,000students studying at polytechnic institutes (HBO) (O+S, 2006).

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

G H I J K L M N O

AmsterdamAmsterdam regionNetherlands

Figure 21: Sub-sectors of the service sector (in % of total employment). Comparison between Amsterdam,the City Region and the Netherlands (Source: O+S, 2006)

Furthermore, the Amsterdam region, and especially the city of Amsterdam is specialised in‘Hotels and restaurants’: 6% in Amsterdam, 5% in the region and 4% nationally. This isrelated to Amsterdam’s position as a top 10 tourist city within Europe. The development oftourism is in line with developments in the world economy and the sector has recovered againin recent years after a short setback in 2003. In 2006, there were 348 hotels, 18,366 rooms and39,272 beds and these numbers have increased in the last 10 years. Logically, most hotels arelocated in the areas that are most visited by tourists, namely the city centre (67%) and theneighbourhoods that are located north and south of Vondelpark: Oud-Zuid (18%) and Oud-West (7%).

The number of hotel guests has risen with nearly 8% between 2004 and 2005 to 4,517,000and even with 20% over the last 10 years. The most important groups of tourists are fromGreat-Britain (1 million; 22%), United States (630,000; 14%) and the Netherlands (623.000;14%). An explanation for the increase in the number of hotel guests is the trend that Dutchpeople who go on holiday in their own country stay at hotels more often, in combination withthe relatively high number of international congresses (mainly in RAI) and the SAIL eventthat took place in 2005. Amsterdam ranked 5th in the top 10 of congress cities in Europe (afterVienna, Barcelona, Berlin and Paris) and 10th in the worldwide ranking, with 82 international

Commercial services:

G: Trade & repairsH: Hotels & restaurantsI: Transport/

communicationsJ: FinancesK: Business services

Non-commercial services:

L: Public sectorM: EducationN: Health & social workO: Other community,

social and personalservices

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congresses in 2005. The number of stays has also increased: with 3.5% between 2004 and2005 to 8,199,000 and even with 25% between 1996 and 2005. The length of stays has,however, been declining since 2003 and stood at 1.82 nights in 2005. Total touristexpenditures are estimated around 4 billion euros a year, 72% of which comes from touristsand the other 28% from business spending by visitors (O+S, 2006; http://www.amsterdam.nl).The number of jobs within the tourist sector has not changed much in recent years. In total,around 46,000 people were employed within the tourist sector in 2005. The number ofcompanies involved in the tourism sector has, however, been declining since 2002 and iscurrently around 7,000 (O+S, 2006).

In recent years, the importance of knowledge, creativity and information has increased in theAmsterdam region. Knowledge-intensive services like financial services, real estate, lawfirms and ICT, as well as creative industries, are showing significant clusters within theAmsterdam Metropolitan Area, which will be illustrated in Chapter 5. No less than 44% of allpeople working in Amsterdam are highly-educated (university or HBO degree). In the wholeregion, this share is somewhat lower (38%), but still much higher than the national average of30%. Within the region, there are big differences though: in IJmond and Zaanstreek, only25% and 23% of the workforce is highly educated. All lower forms of education areunderrepresented in the region as a whole, although some sub-regions still offer a significantnumber of low-skilled jobs (O+S, 2004).

Occupations NetherlandsAmsterdamregion

Amsterdamregion

2000 2000 20051. Managers & senior officials 13% 22% 26%2. Professional occupations 17% 17.5% 17.5%3. Associate professional and technicaloccupations 18% 13.5% 13%4. Administrative & secretarial occupations 12% 13% 14%5. Service workers & shops + market salesworkers 13% 7% 7%6. Skilled agricultural + fishery workers 2% 1% 1%7. Craft & related trade workers 10% 4% 3%8. Process, plant and machine operatives 6% 8% 7%9. Elementary occupations 9% 2% 2%

Total7,567,700 =

100% 577,000 = 100% 606,000 = 100%

Figure 22: Occupational groups (ISCO-88) in the Netherlands and the Amsterdam region (Source:http://laborsta.ilo.org; CBS)

Figure 22 shows the share of several occupational groups (ISCO-88 classification) in the totalactive population. It turns out that the Amsterdam region has relatively many people workingas managers and senior officials (22%, compared to 13% nationally in 2000). The relativeshare of managers and senior officials has also increased the most between 2000 and 2005.The Amsterdam region also has a bit more administrative and secretarial occupations (13%,compared to 12% nationally in 2000); probably because those jobs normally co-existalongside managerial jobs. Given the relatively small share of industrial jobs in the region, itseems at first sight more surprising that the region has relatively many process, plant and

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machine operatives. However, the presence in the region, although declining for years, ofsteel manufacturing activities in Velsen (9,000 working persons) and food productionactivities in especially Zaanstad and Amsterdam (9,000 working persons) could possiblyexplain these high shares. The share of process, plant and machine operatives within theregion’s active population has, however, declined with 1% between 2000 and 2005.Compared to the national level, the Amsterdam region has relatively few associateprofessional and technical occupations (13.5%, compared to 18% nationally), service workersand shops and market sales workers (7%, compared to 13% nationally), agricultural andfishery workers (1%, compared to 2% nationally), craft and related trade workers (4%,compared to 10% nationally) and elementary occupations (2%, compared to 9%)(http://laborsta.ilo.org; CBS).

4.2.4 Settlement climate

Amsterdam remains an important city for the settlement of (international) companies; in aranking of European cities based on the attractiveness of their settlement climate, Amsterdamwas on the 6th place in 2006, behind London, Paris, Frankfurt, Barcelona and Brussels (figure23).

1990 2005 2006London 1 1 1Paris 2 2 2Frankfurt 3 3 3Barcelona 11 5 4Brussels 4 4 5Amsterdam 5 6 6Madrid 17 7 7Berlin 15 8 8Munich 12 9 9Zurich 7 10 10

Figure 23: The Top 10 of the European Cities Monitor (Source: Cushman & Wakefield, 2006)

According to the ‘European Cities Monitor’, Amsterdam scores high on the fields ofaccessibility of markets and clients, the availability of office space, the multilingualpopulation, transport connections and the life standard of personnel (figure 24). The highquality of life, diversity and the cultural and lively image are also often mentioned as strongaspects of Amsterdam, which distinguish Amsterdam from other European cities. The‘Competitive Alternatives’ research by KPMG also showed that the running costs ofcompanies are relatively low in Amsterdam, when compared to other large European,American and Asian cities. Although Amsterdam is in the Top 30 of most expensive officelocations, most major West-European cities are still considerably more expensive.Furthermore, the presence of a large international airport (Schiphol), a relatively large numberof high-quality research institutes as well as 2 universities and a fast glass-fibre internetconnection make Amsterdam into an attractive business location. In fact, Amsterdam is thesecond largest internet node of Europe (behind London) and the fastest internet node in theworld.

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The most negative aspects of Amsterdam turned out to be the high personnel costs and thehigh costs of housing. In general, Amsterdam is known as an expensive city: in 2005, the cityeven ranked 24th on the list of most expensive cities of the world. In 2006, Amsterdam hasfallen back to place 41, however, mainly because of the increasing costs of life in cities inEastern Asia. Also, increasing traffic problems (jams) have caused the city to fall back oneplace in the ranking of most liveable cities in the world to number 13 in 2006(http://www.os.amsterdam.nl; Cushman & Wakefield, 2006; KPMG, 2006).

Best business location 6Familiarity with city 11Cities improving themselves 17Representation of companies 10Access to markets 4Availability of qualified staff 9External transport links 4Quality of telecommunications 10Cost of staff 26Climate created by government 11Value for money of office space 19Availability of office space 15Languages spoken 2Internal transport 10Quality of life for employees 11Freedom from pollution 12

Figure 24: The results of Amsterdam in the European Cities Monitor 2006 (Source: Cushman & Wakefield,2006)

In 2006, 86 new foreign companies settled in the Amsterdam region and this number has beenincreasing for some years (73 companies in 2005 and 63 companies in 2004). Most newforeign companies settled in Amsterdam (59), but Schiphol (13), Almere (7), Hoofddorp/Nieuw Vennep (5) and Amstelveen (2) were also chosen as settlement locations. WithinAmsterdam, the city centre, South Axis, Teleport Sloterdijk and Southeast were the mostpopular locations. In total, these foreign companies provide 892 new jobs. The main region oforigin in 2006 was Asia (35%), with North America and EMEA (Europe, Middle East,Africa) both following with 32.5%. Japan was the most important country of origin with 12companies, but also 7 new Korean companies settled in the region. Japan and Korea arecurrently the most important business partners, but Amsterdam is also increasingly attractingIndian (ICT) and Chinese (airline) companies.

The municipality of Amsterdam and the region actively stimulate attracting foreigncompanies in line with the ‘Amsterdam Topstad’ policy, which is meant to improve theinternational image and settlement climate of the city. The ambition is to attract (European)headquarters in order to improve the region’s competitiveness, but also important Asiancompanies; 750.000 extra euros have been made available for the active acquisition ofcompanies from China and India (http://www.amsterdam.nl; http://www.os.amsterdam.nl).This policy will be addressed in more detail in Chapter 6.

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4.3 Housing market and infrastructure

4.3.1 The housing stock

Of the total housing stock in the Netherlands, 14% is located within the Amsterdam region.At the beginning of 2006, 992,492 dwellings were counted within the region, of which 38%was located within Amsterdam. Amsterdam’s share in the regional housing stock is slowlydecreasing, however: the share was still 39% in 2002. Most new constructions take place inthe wider region, especially in Almere and Amstel-Meerlanden (Haarlemmermeer), whichnow have respectively 7% and 13% of all housing in the region and this share has beenincreasing for years. These are the only sub-areas where sufficient space is still available. Thehousing density in the region is 673 dwellings per km², which is three times more than thenational average, but within the region there are large variations. Logically, Amsterdam is themost densely built sub-region with 2,285 dwellings per km², while the rural sub-regionWaterland has the lowest density with only 255 dwellings per km² (O+S, 2006).

Amsterdam has a relatively old housing stock: nearly half of all dwellings were built beforethe Second World War, compared to only one-third in the region. Apart from the fact thatAmsterdam was not severely damaged in the Second World War, this relatively old housingstock is also caused by the limited space for expansions within the city limits. Since 1990,however, new construction is more evenly spread between the city (12%) and the widerregion (16%). This can probably be explained by the conversion of former harbour sites(Eastern and Western harbour districts) and the site of the old Ajax stadium inWatergraafsmeer (Park De Meer) into residential areas and by the construction of IJburg,which has been constructed on newly-made land in the river IJ. Also, in the 1990s, new areaslike De Aker and Nieuw Sloten were fully built up. Apart from IJburg, the limits of growthwithin the core city have been reached around 2005, however.

Housing in Amsterdam is also predominantly small-sized: 67% of all dwellings has at most 3rooms, while the share in the region is only 42%. On the other hand, the share of dwellingswith more than 5 rooms is relatively small in Amsterdam: 9%, compared to 27% in the widerregion. The share of single-family dwellings is relatively small in Amsterdam (15%) whencompared to the wider region (50%) and especially the Netherlands (71%); most dwellingsare apartments. Thus, for people who prefer a larger dwelling, there is little choice within thecore city. There is, however, much more variation within the region: in Waterland, Almereand Het Gooi en Vechtstreek around 80% of the housing stock consists of single-familydwellings (DRO, 2006a; O+S, 2006).

4.3.2 Housing market sectors

The city of Amsterdam has a relatively large social rented housing stock. At the beginning of2006, 52 per cent of Amsterdam’s housing stock belonged to the social rented sector, incomparison to 40% in the region and only 34% in the Netherlands. Also the private rentedsector is with 27% relatively large in the core city: only 16% regionally and 10% on thenational level. The owner-occupied sector is still very much underrepresented in the City of

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Amsterdam: 21%, compared to 44% in the region and even 56% in the Netherlands (figure25). In fact, Amsterdam has one of the smallest owner-occupied sectors in the world (O+S,2006; Aalbers, 2004). In Amsterdam’s neighbouring municipalities, the housing stock ispredominantly owner-occupied and the social-rented sector is relatively small, with theexception of the older centres like Haarlem and Zaandam and some new towns (Bontje et al.,forthcoming).

This large share of social housing has created a problem of accessibility on the housingmarket in Amsterdam. The average waiting time for a social rented dwelling is 7 years andthe average residence in the first dwelling is no less than 14 years. The number of moveswithin the city is small and has been declining since the early 1990s. As a result, about 30%of all residents lives in a too small dwelling; the Turkish and Moroccan groups, who ingeneral have the largest families, in particular. Over the last couple of years, the number ofmovements started to increase again slightly: from 65,000 in 2000 to 75,000 in 2005. Possibleexplanations for this are the decrease of foreign migration, increasing emigration and anincrease in new construction outside Amsterdam (O+S, 2006; Bontje et al., forthcoming).

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Social rent Private rent Owner-occupied

AmsterdamRSANetherlands

Figure 25: The housing stock according to ownership in Amsterdam, the Metropolitan Area and theNetherlands (in %) (Source: O+S, 2006)

Between 2002 and 2006, the social rented sector in the core city has declined with 9,000dwellings. New social rented dwellings are still being constructed, but their relative share ismuch smaller than that of newly-built owner-occupied dwellings. Also the private rentedsector has declined, although not as much as the social rented sector: -4,000 dwellings.Relatively few new private rented dwellings are constructed. On the other hand, the owner-occupied sector has increased sharply between 2002 and 2006: +19,000 dwellings. Thisincrease is caused by selling rented dwellings (12,000), new constructions (5,000) and bycombining dwellings (2,000) (O+S, 2006). The aim is to increase the share of owner-occupieddwellings to 35% (Ten Hoove, 2004).

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The average price for an owner-occupied dwelling has decreased over the last years, between2004 and 2005 even with 8%. This is probably caused by the selling of rented dwellings,which are often cheaper than “traditional” owner-occupied dwellings. However, compared to10 years ago, the average price has skyrocketed: from €74,000 in 1994 to €188,000 in 2005.The strongest increase has taken place in the 19th century neighbourhoods: from €55,000 in1994 to €190,000 in 2005 (O+S, 2006). This strong increase coincides with the increasedpopularity of Amsterdam as a residential location for professionals since the 1990s, whosepreference for central locations probably also explains why exactly the 19th centuryneighbourhoods have become much more expensive (DRO, 2006a).

4.3.3 Transport infrastructure

Amsterdam is well connected to several forms of public transport. There is a ring road(motorway A10) surrounding the core city, which is connected to motorways running in alldirections. All important sub-centres within the Amsterdam region have a motorwayconnection to the city of Amsterdam. There is also a dense railroad network in and aroundAmsterdam, connecting Amsterdam to the rest of the region and also with the rest of thecountry and Europe by intercity and international trains. There are several train stations, thelargest one being Amsterdam Centraal (Central Station), which is one of the most crowdedstations in the Netherlands with around 150,000 travellers a day. Within Amsterdam, there area few other stations where fast trains are stopping, like Amsterdam Sloterdijk, AmsterdamAmstel, Amsterdam Bijlmer/ArenA and Amsterdam Zuid, and in-between, some stations areconnected to the slow train network. Around the intercity stations, many offices andentertainment facilities have been constructed, especially in the last decades, in order todiminish the pressure on the inner city.

Within the city, there is also a dense public transport network. Trams, buses and four metrolines are connecting the city centre to the outer districts, the peripheral office locations and thesuburbs. Another metro line, running from north to south, is currently being constructed andwill be finished around 2012 according to the most recent plans. Amsterdam, and in fact theNetherlands in general, are also known world-wide for their biking tradition: nearly half of alltraffic movements in Amsterdam take place by bicycle and this is also the fastest mode oftransport within the inner city.

Amsterdam also has the national airport, Schiphol, which is located around 15 kilometressouthwest of the inner city in the municipality of Haarlemmermeer. Currently, the airportranks fourth in the list of most important airports in Europe in terms of passengers (afterLondon Heathrow, Paris Charles de Gaulle and Frankfurt) and even third in terms of freight(after Frankfurt and Paris Charles de Gaulle). The total number of passengers was 44 Millionin 2005, which means an increase of 12% since 2001. Also, 1,450,000 tons of freight weredistributed in 2005; an increase of 23% since 2001 (O+S, 2006). The seaports around theNorth Sea Canal, stretching from Amsterdam, Zaanstad, Beverwijk and Velsen to IJmuiden,have been growing rapidly in recent years and the port of the city of Amsterdam in particular.The total distribution of freight has increased with 18% between 2004 and 2005, partly as a

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result of the inclusion of Amsterdam in 3 intercontinental routes to China, Japan and LatinAmerica. Concerning the number of passenger ships, there has been an increase in the numberof ferries (especially in IJmuiden) and in the number of Rhine-cruises. The number of cruiseships (both in Amsterdam and IJmuiden) has been increasing again since 2002, although thenumber in 2005 (114) is still a bit smaller than the number in 2001 (125). An explanation forthe recent growth could be the opening of a new passenger terminal a few years ago at thesouthern bank of the River IJ (O+S, 2006).

4.4 Conclusions

Amsterdam is the largest city of the Netherlands and is located in a metropolitan area withmore than 2 million inhabitants. The region has a growing population, and most of thisgrowth takes place in the wider region, as the limits of growth have been reached in the corecity of Amsterdam. When compared to the national level, the region has an over-representation of the age category 25-49, single-person households (especially in the corecity) and people of non-Dutch origin. In socio-economic terms, the city and the region arerelatively mixed and the unemployment rate does not differ much from the national average.An interesting development is that income differences between the city and the wider regionhave been decreasing since the late 1990s. Also, the region has a relatively highly educatedactive population.

The regional economy has been growing again since 2004, after a short recession at thebeginning of the 21st century. Because of the regional economic diversity, there are alwayssectors that keep on growing if other sectors are in crisis, and the total number of companieshas grown during the last five years. Increasingly, this growth takes place in the wider region,but there are no signs of a decline of the core city. Rather, also within the city of Amsterdam,decentralisation of employment is taking place. The region is specialised in service delivery(e.g. ‘transport, distribution and communication’, ‘financial services’, ‘hotels and restaurants’and ‘other services’) and accommodates relatively many people working in managerialoccupations. But the regional economy is not dependent on one single sector; a decline in onesector can always be compensated or at least mitigated by growth in other sectors. This makesthe region less vulnerable in times of economic downturns. According to the European CitiesMonitor, in which Amsterdam ranks 6th in terms of its business climate, the city has anattractive settlement climate, but is expensive, both for employers (personnel costs) andemployees (housing costs and general costs of living).

The housing market is characterised by a relatively large social rented sector and a relativelysmall owner-occupied sector and by relatively small housing, especially in the core city.Whereas the high and rising housing prices are a major challenge for the region, the region’sgood transport connections are definitely a strong asset. Especially the location of Schipholinternational airport within the region’s territory has been an important booster for theregional economy.

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5 The current state of the creative knowledge sectors

5.1 Statistical analysis of creative knowledge sectors

5.1.1Creative industries in the Netherlands and Amsterdam

The relative size of the creative sector is the Netherlands is small: in 2004, only 3% of allemployment belonged to the creative sector. Still, the relative importance is increasingquickly: in 1996, the number of creative jobs was still 190,000 and this number has increasedwith 25% to 238,000 in 2004. Between 2002 and 2004, the relative importance of the sectordecreased slightly, however, which could illustrate that the sector is relatively sensitive tointernational economic developments. The strongest growth occurred in the fields of arts,architecture, technical engineering, designer fashion and radio and TV production and relatedservice deliveries (Marlet & Poort, 2005).

The creative industries are mainly concentrated in the northern half of the Randstad regionand alongside the so-called ‘A2-corridor’ from Amsterdam to Maastricht. Amsterdam is themain centre for creative industries, with 13% of all creative jobs in The Netherlands, withwhich the city stays far above Rotterdam (5%), The Hague (4.5%) and Utrecht (3%).Amsterdam is the main concentration area for all but one of the cultural industries; only forarchitecture, Rotterdam is the most important city (Kloosterman, 2004). The Randstad regionalso has the highest growth rates for the creative sectors, especially in Amsterdam: +65%between 1996 and 2004. The creative industries together have over 15% of all firms andaround 8% of all employment in the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area (LISA, 2005; Marlet &Poort, 2005).

The ‘creative industries’ sector has been sub-divided in the following sub-sectors: creativebusiness services (advertising, architecture and industrial design, designer fashion, software),arts (arts and antiques trade, music and the visual and performing arts) and media andentertainment (publishing, video, film, music production and photography, radio andtelevision). The next sections will present some figures and maps that illustrate theconcentrations of these sub-sectors, as well as some other creative knowledge sectors that donot belong to creative industries, within the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area. The categories arebased on the standard deviation of the absolute number of firms for each sector: the yellowareas score below the regional average, the light blue areas score higher than the regionalaverage and the dark blue areas have score much higher than the regional average. Afterpresenting the spatial distribution of the creative knowledge sectors in the sections 5.1.2 until5.1.5, section 5.1.6 will discuss explanations and interpretations of how these patterns havecome about.

The database used for the maps is the LISA database, which is generally considered as themost accurate and complete database on the location of firms and jobs in the Netherlands.This database is updated yearly. For our analysis, we used the LISA database of 2005. These

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data are available at the 4-digit postal code level. The 4-digit postal code areas are shown onthe map as the basic geographic unit for the following analyses. A cautionary note should bemade in order to interpret the distribution patterns on the maps. Since the division of theNetherlands into postal codes is generally based on the number of inhabitants as well asmunicipal borders, the geographic size of these areas varies significantly within theAmsterdam Metropolitan Area. This sometimes makes some less densely populated areasshow up as seemingly large-scale clusters of creative knowledge industries, while the actualcluster within these areas is much smaller in size. The following map (figure 26) gives anoverview of the main centres in the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area.

Figure 26: The Amsterdam Metropolitan Area (Source: http://www.regionalesamenwerking.amsterdam.nl;Revised by B. Sleutjes)

5.1.2 Creative business services

The ‘advertising’ sub-sector makes up 3% of all firms and 1% of all jobs in the AmsterdamMetropolitan Area. The sector’s share in the total number of companies within the region istwice as high as the figure on the national level (1.6%), and of all Dutch advertising firms,28% is located in the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area. In total, there are 3,706 companiesinvolved in advertising, which offer work to over 11,000 people.

Haarlemmermeer

Amsterdam

Het Gooi

Almere

ZaanstadWaterland

Haarlem

Amstelveen

Aalsmeer

South Axis

Southeast

Amstel

Teleport Sloterdijk

Schiphol airport

Media Park Hilversum

Hoofddorp

Eastern harbour districtCity centre

IJmond

Diemen

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Advertising firms tend to have an urban orientation: 1,745 firms (47%) are located in the cityof Amsterdam. Within Amsterdam, those firms are mainly located within the Ring road A10and south of the river IJ, and above all in the inner city, the Eastern and Western harbourdistricts, the 19th century ring and in the South axis (figure 27). Also in the office park inAmsterdam Southeast, there appears to be a large concentration of advertising firms. Outsidethe city, there are a few clusters as well, especially in the southern suburb of Amstelveen(Amstel-Meerlanden), Haarlem in the east and parts of Het Gooi in the southeast. AlsoWormerveer (Zaanstreek) to the north of Amsterdam has a number of advertising firms that ismuch higher than the regional average (LISA, 2005; http://www.cbs.nl).

25,3 to 95 (33)10,5 to 25,3 (76)0 to 10,5 (244)

Figure 27: The number of advertising firms within the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area (Source: LISA, 2005)

The sub-sector ‘architecture and technical engineering’ has 2,888 firms (2% of all firms) inthe whole region, and the region has 16% of all Dutch architecture and engineeringcompanies. This sector cannot be regarded as a speciality of the Amsterdam MetropolitanArea; its share in the total number of companies is as high as the national average (2%). Intotal, 14,360 people work within this sector, which is around 1% of all regional employment.

The main concentration area is the city of Amsterdam, which has 39% of all firms, and withinthe city, again most firms are located within the ring road and south of the river IJ, with anexception of one district on the north bank of the river IJ. The inner city and the harbourdistricts are popular locations again, and outside the inner city, there is a clear concentrationin the southern districts. Also the office parks on highly-accessible locations like Amstel andSoutheast have a large number of firms or a small concentration of large firms (figure 28).

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9,1 to 40 (23)3,6 to 9,1 (99)0 to 3,6 (231)

Figure 28: The number architectural or technical engineering firms (Source: LISA, 2005)

The same figures also show that outside the core city, the sector is a bit more dispersed acrossthe region than advertising firms. Still, some concentration areas can clearly be recognised.Again, Het Gooi, the Haarlem agglomeration, Amstelveen and parts of Zaanstreek (Zaandamand Wormerveer) turn out to be important clusters, but also Hoofddorp, located inHaarlemmermeer (Amstel-Meerlanden) has a large concentration of ‘architecture andengineering’ firms. Hoofddorp has developed into an important office location over the pastdecade, with many (high-rise) office buildings located around the railway station. At firstsight more surprisingly, also parts of Kennemerland (IJmond) have clusters of architectureand engineering. This area is known for its steel manufacturing and ship building industry, sothese creative clusters will likely include many engineering activities related to thoseindustries (LISA, 2005; http://www.cbs.nl).

‘Software, computer games and electronic publishing’ has 3,750 firms (3%) and 18,568 jobs(2%) within the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area. Nearly one quarter of all Dutch softwarefirms is located in the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area and also the regional share of this sectorwithin the total number of firms is higher than the national share of 2%, which indicates thatAmsterdam is an important cluster for software. The city of Amsterdam has almost half of allemployment within this sector and again, the districts within the ring road have the largestconcentrations of firms, but in terms of the number of jobs, also some office locations in thewest (Sloterdijk) and southeast (Amstel, Southeast) of the city are important. On the regionallevel, Hoofddorp, Het Gooi, Amstelveen and the centre of Haarlem step out again, but alsoparts of Zaanstad and Purmerend (Waterland) have significant concentrations of firms (figure29) (LISA, 2005; http://www.cbs.nl).

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24,3 to 82 (39)10,6 to 24,3 (75)0 to 10,6 (239)

Figure 29: The number of software firms (Source: LISA, 2005)

‘Designer fashion’ is not really a significant sector in the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area, withonly 481 companies (0.4% of all firms) and 1,774 employees (0.2%). The region also hasonly 15% of all Dutch ‘designer fashion’ firms, which is considerably less than theaforementioned creative sectors, and the share of the sector in the total number of companiesis also not higher than on the national level (0.4%). Within the sector, more than half of allactivities involve the manufacturing of wearing apparel or the dressing and dyeing of fur.

40% of all firms is located in Amsterdam, and within the city, this sector only concentratesinside the ring road and also mainly south of the river IJ. The highest scores are found in thecity centre, the 19th century districts Oud-West and Oud-Zuid, the Western harbour districtand some peripheral office locations, especially in the southwest, where the World FashionCentre is located. In the wider region, the sector is much more dispersed than the othercreative industries, and is also found in parts of the region where other creative industries arenot or hardly found. Figure 30 shows that the most important clusters are the smaller cores inHet Gooi, Haarlem, Aalsmeer and Badhoevedorp (Amstel-Meerlanden), parts of Zaanstreek,IJmuiden (IJmond), and even some parts of Waterland (Edam and Volendam) and Almere(LISA, 2005; http://www.cbs.nl).

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3,3 to 12 (36)1,4 to 3,3 (74)0 to 1,4 (243)

Figure 30: The number of designer fashion firms (Source: LISA, 2005)

5.1.3 Arts

‘Arts and antiques trade’ is also a relatively small sector within the region, with 590 firms(0.4% of all firms) and 877 employees (0.1%). The share of this sector in the total number ofcompanies is comparable to the national average (0.3%), but still 23% of the total Dutch arts-and antiques trade is located in the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area. The sector is also stronglyconcentrated, as is illustrated by figure 31. Of all firms, 59% is located in the core city, wherethe largest concentrations are found in the western part of Amsterdam’s city centre (westerncanal belt and Jordaan and in particular Nieuwe Spiegelstraat), the 19th century districts Oud-Zuid and Oud-West and in the Western Harbour District. Outside Amsterdam, there areconcentrations of ‘arts and antiques trade’ in the centre of Haarlem, Huizen (Het Gooi) and -in terms of the number of working persons- also in parts of the southern suburb ofAmstelveen (LISA, 2005; http://www.cbs.nl).

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9 to 108 (10)2 to 9 (62)0 to 2 (281)

Figure 31: The number of firms in arts and antiques trade (Source: LISA, 2005)

The sub-sector ‘music and the visual and performing arts’ consists of 3,749 firms (3%) andoffers 10,462 jobs (1%) in the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area. Nationally, this sector has only0.7% of all firms, which indicates that the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area is specialised in thissector. Also, no less than 68% of all Dutch firms within this sector is located in theAmsterdam Metropolitan Area. Most companies are involved in service activities for artists(36%) and the practising of visual arts (32%). Also most jobs involve service activities forartists (27%), the practicing of visual arts (20%) and the practicing of performing arts (18%).

30 to 126 (31)11 to 30 (52)0 to 11 (270)

Figure 32: The number of firms in music and the visual and performing arts (Source: LISA, 2005)

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Amsterdam clearly has the largest concentration within the region: 56% of all firms and even62% of all jobs. Again, a large concentration within the ring road and south of the river IJ canbe found. Outside the city, parts of Het Gooi (in particular Hilversum and Laren) have largeclusters of firms and also in Haarlem and Amstelveen, the sector scores much higher than theregional average (figure 32). When looking at the number of working persons (figure 33),Hoofddorp and Aalsmeer to the southwest of the city and the city centre of Almere appear tobe important locations as well for this sector (LISA, 2005; http://www.cbs.nl).

122 to 927 (19)30 to 122 (40)0 to 30 (294)

Figure 33: The number of people working in music and the visual and performing arts (Source: LISA,2005)

5.1.4 Media and entertainment

‘Publishing’ has 1% of all firms (1,398) and 1% of all jobs (11,012) in the region. In total,42% of all Dutch publishing companies are located in the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area andthe relative share of the sector within the total number of companies is also more than twiceas high as the national figure of 0.4%. Most firms are involved in publishing activities (69%)and in particular the publishing of books (25%) and magazines (22%). Even 93% of allemployment within this sector is concentrated in publishing activities; especially thepublishing of magazines (39%), newspapers (24%) and books (20%).

The sub-sector has four main concentration areas: Amsterdam, Hoofddorp (Haarlemmer-meer), Het Gooi and Haarlem. More than half of all firms are located in Amsterdam andwithin Amsterdam, again a concentration inside the ring road and south of the river IJ can bedistinguished, with the exception of the office park around the Sloterdijk station. There is adifference between publishers of books and publishers of newspapers, regarding theirpreferred settlement location. Whereas publishers of newspapers moved to peripherallocations for logistical reasons, publishers of books have remained in the inner-city, especially

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in the (southern) canal belt (DRO, 2006b). Outside the city, Het Gooi and Haarlem are themain clusters (figure 34). Also for this sector the map with the concentration of workingpersons (figure 35) shows a somewhat different picture. Hoofddorp again turns out to have asmall number of very large firms and also office locations in Amsterdam-West andAmsterdam-Southeast accommodate many jobs in publishing (LISA, 2005;http://www.cbs.nl).

11,2 to 73 (28)3,9 to 11,2 (79)0 to 3,9 (246)

Figure 34: The number of publishing firms (Source: LISA, 2005)

170 to 2.010 (17)30 to 170 (31)0 to 30 (305)

Figure 35: The number of working persons in publishing (Source: LISA, 2005)

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The ‘video, film, music production and photography’ sector has 3,039 firms (2% of all firms)and 6,236 employees (0.6%) within the whole region. Also this sector turns out to be aspecialisation of the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area: 65% of all Dutch companies belonging tothis sector is located in the region. The relative share of this sector in the total number offirms is also much higher than on the national level (0.6%).

There are three main concentration areas (figure 36): the city of Amsterdam, Het Gooi and toa lesser extent also the centre of Haarlem. Within Amsterdam, where the largest concentrationcan be found (60% of all firms and 50% of all jobs), the sector is only concentrated within thering road and especially in the inner city, the districts south and west of the inner city, theharbour districts and Watergraafsmeer in the east. Also in terms of the number of workingpeople, the office park around Amstel station appears to be an important location. In the widerregion, an axis from Amsterdam to the southeast can be recognised, which runs from Diemenand Weesp to Het Gooi. Again, also the centre of Haarlem has a relatively large cluster ofvideo, film, music and photography firms (LISA, 2005; http://www.cbs.nl).

25 to 104 (29)9 to 25 (51)0 to 9 (273)

Figure 36: The number of firms in video, film, music production or photography (Source: LISA, 2005)

The ‘radio and television’ sector is small when the number of firms and jobs is concerned:there are only 435 firms (0.3%) and 9,023 jobs (1%) in the whole Amsterdam MetropolitanArea. However, compared to the national level, where the share in the total number ofcompanies is only 0.03%, the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area turns out to be an importantlocation for this sector. This is also illustrated by the fact that 97% of all Dutch radio and TVcompanies is located in the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area, making it the one and onlysignificant media cluster in the Netherlands. Most firms are involved in radio and TVproduction (69%), but in terms of employment, the broadcasting companies are the mostimportant players within this sector (67.5%).

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Also within the region, this sector is very much concentrated: 264 firms (61%) are locatedwithin Amsterdam and 22% is located in Hilversum, where most broadcasting organisationsare located. In Amsterdam, again the central districts have the largest clusters and in particularthe inner city, the harbour districts and the districts south and west of the inner city. Apartfrom Amsterdam and Hilversum, also other parts of Het Gooi (including Bussum) and thecentre of Haarlem have radio and television clusters (figure 37).

4,5 to 43 (29)1,2 to 4,5 (43)0 to 1,2 (281)

Figure 37: The number of Radio and TV firms (Source: LISA, 2005)

320 to 5.440 (3)30 to 320 (16)0 to 30 (334)

Figure 38: The number of working persons in Radio and TV (Source: LISA, 2005)

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Figure 38 shows that in terms of employment, especially Hilversum (Het Gooi) and alsoAalsmeer, where the RTL studios are located are the most important concentration areas. InHilversum, 71% of all jobs within this sector are located. Thus, large firms settle in Het Gooiand Aalsmeer, while Amsterdam appears to attract many relatively small firms (LISA, 2005).According to DRO (2006b), there has for a long time been a task division betweenAmsterdam on the one hand and Hilversum and Aalsmeer on the other hand: ideas aredeveloped in Amsterdam, but worked out in Hilversum or Aalsmeer. However, over the lastfew years, some television companies (SBS and RTL) have moved (some of) their studios toAmsterdam as well and settled in the Eastern Harbour District, which could indicate a gradualchange in this development.

5.1.5 Other creative knowledge sectors

Apart from the ‘creative industries’, also four other knowledge-intensive sectors have beentaken into account: ‘Information Communication Technology’ (ICT), ‘financial services’,‘law and other business services’ and ‘research and development (R&D) and highereducation’. This section will deal with the patterns of concentration of these sectors.

Nationally, the ‘Information Communication Technology’ (ICT) sector accounts for around3% of all firms and 3% of all jobs. The Amsterdam Metropolitan Area has 9% of all DutchICT firms, making it one of the largest concentrations in the Netherlands, behind Utrecht andfollowed by Eindhoven. In total, there are 1,961 ICT firms (1.5%) and 18,260 ICT jobs (2%)in the whole region, of which around one third is located in the city of Amsterdam.

By far the largest part of this sector consists of ICT services: 93% of all firms and 84% of alljobs. ICT production plays only a minor role within the region (7%). Therefore, ICT serviceswill be the main focus of this section. Within the ICT services, the region is specialised incomputer related activities when the number of firms is concerned (64%), but in terms ofemployment, telecommunication is the most important activity (47%).

Figure 39 illustrates that ICT services are especially concentrated in the southern half of theregion, but are quite dispersed within this part of the region. In Amsterdam, the centraldistricts and the peripheral office locations are the most important locations and outside thecity, there are large clusters in Haarlemmermeer, the Haarlem agglomeration, Amstelveen andalso in Hilversum (Het Gooi), the centre of Almere and in IJmuiden (IJmond). The south-western part of the region, including Haarlemmermeer and Aalsmeer, as well as Amsterdam’shighly-accessible office zones and Diemen, are the most important clusters when the numberof working persons is concerned. The inner city especially has smaller companies, while largecompanies settle in the urban periphery or in suburban areas (LISA, 2005).

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11,8 to 55 (40)5,1 to 11,8 (72)0 to 5,1 (241)

Figure 39: The number of ICT-services firms within the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area (Source: LISA,2005)

There has been a negative development for the ‘financial services’ sector. Employment hasbeen decreasing for a number of years in insurances and retirement funds, and since 2005,also the number of jobs at the stock exchange has decreased. This last development is theresult of a merger between the Amsterdam stock exchange with the exchanges of Paris andBrussels (Euronext) (Bontje et al., forthcoming). Also the number of companies has beendecreasing for years, especially after 2004 and in particular in the field of insurances andretirement funds. Within the city of Amsterdam, the number of companies even decreasedwith 16% between 2002 and 2006. Despite this diminished importance, the financial sectorstill accounts for 6% of all employment in the region and even 10% within the city ofAmsterdam, making it the main financial centre of the Netherlands (O+S, 2006).

There are currently 3,308 firms (2% of all firms) in the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area that areinvolved in ‘financial services’, which together provide 54,828 jobs (6%). Compared to thenational level, the number of firms is similar (2%), but the Netherlands as a whole hasrelatively less employment in financial services (4%). Most companies are involved in servicedelivery related to financial intermediation (69%), but financial intermediation itself is themost important activity in terms of the number of working persons (62%).

Of those firms, 1,356 (41%) are located in the city of Amsterdam. Although figure 40 showsthat the financial sector is pretty much dispersed across the region, some dominant clusterscan still be distinguished. In Amsterdam, the inner city, the harbour districts and the districtsin the south and east within the ring road, as well as some peripheral office locations (e.g. theSouth Axis) have the largest clusters of firms. On the regional scale, there are axes runningfrom Amsterdam to Amstelveen in the south, Diemen and Het Gooi in the southeast and

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Haarlemmermeer in the southwest. However, also Haarlem, Zaandam (Zaanstreek) andPurmerend (Waterland) have concentrations of financial services.

24 to 129 (32)9 to 24 (77)0 to 9 (244)

Figure 40: The number of financial companies in the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area (Source: LISA, 2005)

740 to 5.620 (15)160 to 740 (32)

0 to 160 (306)

Figure 41: The number of people working in financial firms within the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area(Source: LISA, 2005)

Figure 41 illustrates that jobs within the financial sector are much more concentrated thanfirms. The main locations in terms of the number of working persons are the south-westernpart of Amsterdam’s inner-city, Amsterdam’s highly accessible office locations (South Axis,

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Amstel, Sloterdijk and Southeast), Haarlemmermeer and Amstelveen, but also Almere seemsto have attracted some large financial offices in its city centre (LISA, 2005).

The sector ‘law and other business services’ contains 16,485 firms (12%), employing 86,099people (9%) within the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area. Apart from legal and accountingfirms, this sector also includes technical testing and analysis, labour recruitment and provisionof personnel, and investigation and security activities. Legal, accounting, book-keeping andauditing activities; tax consultancy, market research and public opinion polling; and businessand management consultancy together form the largest sub-group, with 85% of all companiesand 78% of all working persons. Within this group, most companies are involved in economicresearch and advising (50%) and consultancy and administration (18%). In terms ofemployment, economic research and advising (21%), consultancies and administrative offices(20%) and concern services and holdings (20%) are the most important players. TheAmsterdam Metropolitan Area is specialised in this sector: on the national level, only 8% ofall firms belongs to this sector, and 24% of those firms is located in the AmsterdamMetropolitan Area.

110 to 463 (33)47 to 110 (76)

0 to 47 (244)

Figure 42: The number of firms involved in law and other business services (Source: LISA, 2005)

The sector is present in all sub-regions, but figure 42 shows that there are four main clustersof firms. One concentration area stretches from Amsterdam’s city centre and the harbourdistricts, via the southern city districts to Amstelveen. The other three concentration areas areHoofddorp, the Haarlem agglomeration and Het Gooi. In terms of the number of workingpersons, also the south-eastern part of the Amsterdam agglomeration, parts of Almere andIJmuiden (IJmond) are concentration areas for the ‘law and other business services’ sector.

Because the sector is so broadly defined, it is interesting to look at one distinctive sub-sectoras well. Lawyers’ offices are especially concentrated in the traditional high-status districts.

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Within Amsterdam, the canal belt and the districts to the southwest of the inner city ofAmsterdam are the concentration areas and outside the core city, only the city centre ofHaarlem and Hilversum show relatively large concentrations of lawyers’ offices (figure 43)(LISA, 2005).

14 to 120 (12)3 to 14 (52)0 to 3 (289)

Figure 43: The number of lawyers’ offices within the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area (Source: LISA, 2005)

The final creative knowledge sector is ‘R&D and higher education’, which has 0.4% of allfirms (523) and over 1% of all employment (14,199 jobs). Compared to the national level(0.3%), the share of the sector in the total number of firms is only slightly higher in theAmsterdam Metropolitan Area. Still, 19% of all Dutch companies within this sector is locatedin the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area. Most jobs are found in higher education (64%), whichis logical, given the presence of 2 universities (University of Amsterdam and Free University)and several polytechnics within the region. However, 68% of all firms within the ‘R&D andhigher education’ sector is involved in R&D, within which research institutes on naturalsciences and engineering form the most significant category (44%). Research on socialsciences and humanities is a relatively small category, with only 24% of all firms and 6% ofall working persons.

The ‘R&D and higher education’ sector is mainly concentrated in the core city: two-thirds ofall firms is located within the municipality of Amsterdam (figure 44). The largestconcentrations of firms are found in the inner city and in Buitenveldert, which is logical sincethe two universities have their main buildings there. Also parts of Watergraafsmeer, where aScience Park has been constructed, the harbour districts, Southeast, Osdorp and some districtsto the south and east of the inner-city have large clusters of R&D and higher education. Insome of these districts, polytechnics or faculties of the University of Amsterdam are located,which could partly explain their high score. Outside the city, the most important concentrationareas are Haarlem, Hilversum and Zaanstad, but also Diemen (Polytechnic INHOLLAND)

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and Almere (social sciences faculty of the University of Amsterdam) have importantinstitutions for higher education (LISA, 2005).

5,1 to 33 (24)1,5 to 5,1 (59)0 to 1,5 (270)

Figure 44: The number of R&D and higher education firms (Source: LISA, 2005)

5.1.6 Explanations for clusters of creative knowledge sectors

SectorCompanies(absolute)

Companies(%)

Workingpersons(absolute)

Workingpersons(%)

Creative business services 10,825 8% 46,091 4%Arts 4,339 3% 11,339 1%Media & entertainment 4,872 3% 26,271 3%Total creative industries 20,036 15% 83,701 8%

ICT 1,961 1.5% 18,260 2%Financial services 3,308 2% 54,828 6%Law & other business services 16,485 12% 86,099 9%R&D & higher education 523 0.4% 14,199 1%Total knowledge-intensiveindustries 22,277 16% 173,386 18%

Total creative knowledgeindustries 42,313 31% 257,087 26%

Figure 45: The share of each creative industries and knowledge-intensive industries in the total numberof firms and the total number of working persons within the Amsterdam metropolitan Area (Source: LISA,

2005)

In short, 31% of all firms in the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area belongs to the creativeknowledge sectors, which is more than the national figures (22%) More specified, 20,036

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firms (15%) and 83,701 jobs (8%) are within the creative industries and 22,277 firms (16%)and 173,386 jobs (18%) are within the knowledge-intensive sectors. Thus, in terms of thenumber of firms, both sectors are equally important, but the knowledge-intensive sector ismuch more important in terms of jobs (figure 45). The Amsterdam Metropolitan Area is hometo nearly one quarter (24%) of all creative knowledge companies in the Netherlands and isparticularly specialised in certain creative industries (like ‘radio and TV’, ‘music and thevisual and performing arts’, ‘video, film, music production and photography’, ‘publishing’and ‘advertising’) and ‘law and other business services’ (figure 46).

Creative knowledge sectors

Share (%) of theAmsterdam MetropolitanArea in the total numberof Dutch companies

Creative industriesRadio & TV 97%Music + visual and performing arts 68%Video, film, music production and photography 65%Publishing 42%Advertising 28%Software 23%Arts- and antiques trade 23%Architecture 16%Designer fashion 15%

Other knowledge-intensive sectorsLaw and other business services 24%R&D + higher education 19%Financial services 17%ICT 9%

Total 24%

Figure 46: Specialisation of the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area in creative and knowledge-intensiveindustries (Source: LISA, 2005; http://www.cbs.nl)

Overall, the most important clusters of creative knowledge are Amsterdam within the ringroad, the suburbs south of Amsterdam (especially Amstelveen), Haarlemmermeer, Het Gooiand the city centre of Haarlem. For a few sectors, also Zaanstreek has a high score, while thesub-regions IJmond, Waterland and Almere have the relatively smallest concentrations ofcreative and knowledge-intensive sectors.

Explanations for the large concentration of creative firms in the central parts of Amsterdamwere provided by DRO (2006b). First of all, the inner-city is attractive, not only because ofthe proximity to clients and other creative industries, but also because of the architecturalquality; the city has many old and monumental buildings. Related to this are identity andimage factors: creative companies derive status from their location in a popular creativedistrict, like the inner city of Amsterdam, which is important for their survival in the creativecircuit. This argument probably also holds true for Haarlem, which also has a historic inner-city with many monumental buildings and where creative firms are also predominantly foundin this inner-city.

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The diverse and high-quality supply of urban amenities in the Amsterdam inner-city is alsoregarded as important, because of status factors and because this creates meeting places thatare important for business contacts within the creative sector. Amsterdam is the only Dutchcity where the large local creative production (like museums and visual and performance arts)clearly has a positive influence on employment growth. Especially the cultural sector isimportant in this respect, both for the creation of new ideas and as a meeting place for highlyeducated urban professionals. Amsterdam’s relatively high density of culture and nightlife isseen as an important settlement factor for creative workers and in this respect, Amsterdam hasa structural advantage over other Dutch cities (Marlet & Poort, 2005). Furthermore, theattractiveness of Amsterdam’s public space and green structure, and especially the presence ofmuch water, (canals and rivers) are factors that give Amsterdam’s inner-city its uniquecharacter, which in turn makes the city attractive for creative industries and creativeknowledge workers. More details on Amsterdam’s cultural circuit and other ‘soft factors’ willbe presented in section 5.3.

The structure of the housing market plays an important role as well. Neighbourhoods withfragmented ownership, small-scale allotments and large variations in housing types turn out tohave the best cards for attracting creative industries, and those neighbourhoods are found inAmsterdam’s (and Haarlem’s) inner city. Inside the inner city, parts where large-scale urbanrenewal has taken place (Kattenburg/ Wittenburg) turn out to be less popular with creativeindustries, because of their less authentic appearance and because of a lack of office space.The high rents in the tourist core (broadly between Dam Square, Nieuwmarkt and CentralStation) make this area less popular with creative industries. This area is also regarded as toocrowded and noisy for other sectors than pubs, hotels and restaurants (DRO, 2006b).

The city centre and Oud-Zuid have for a longer time been the main concentration areas forcreative industries, but over the last couple of years also boroughs like Oud-West, AmsterdamNorth (on the borders of the river IJ) and Zeeburg (Indische Buurt) have become increasinglypopular with (small) creative companies (Van Oosteren & Slot, 2006). Van der Groep &Röling (2005) found three explanations for the shift of audiovisual and advertising companiestowards Oud-West, which will probably apply to other industries and other locations as well.First of all, many companies are in need of larger office space, which is scarce in thetraditional concentration districts, but can be found in Oud-West. Second, some companiesprefer to be located away from the ‘establishment’ in the traditional concentration areas.Related to this, DRO (2006b) concluded that especially the advertising branch is veryinnovative and willing to ‘conquer’ new neighbourhoods. Third, the often (still) cheaper rentsin those areas play an important role, especially in the case of starting companies.

The central districts of Amsterdam have the largest concentration of firms, while highly-accessible zones on Amsterdam’s periphery (South Axis, Teleport Sloterdijk, Amstel andBijlmer) and sub-centres like Haarlemmermeer and Amstelveen have high scores when thenumber of employees is concerned. A possible explanation could be that small companiesattach more value to a central-urban environment and the possibility of face-to-face contactsthan to accessibility, while a choice for a peripheral location is often made because of logisticreasons and lack of space in the inner city. Moves to the periphery are usually made by large

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firms with an established reputation. Peripheral locations are highly accessible, both by carand by public transport, and still offer the space that is needed for large-scale officeconstruction. In the case of Haarlemmermeer, the proximity to Schiphol Airport is also animportant factor, especially for firms that are dependent on international contacts, like manyarchitectural or engineering firms. Still, a highly-accessible location should not be located toofar from the inner-city in order to be attractive as a creative knowledge cluster (DRO, 2006b).

Scale-factors also could explain Hilversum’s importance as a creative cluster, with no lessthan 23% of all local employment belonging to the creative sectors, especially media andentertainment. The presence of the large-scale ‘Media Park’ makes Hilversum an attractivelocation for large audiovisual companies, while small audiovisual companies mainly settle inAmsterdam. It is likely that the presence of a large media-cluster in combination with thereputation as a ‘media centre’ has attracted other creative (knowledge) sectors to Hilversumand the rest of Het Gooi as well (Van der Groep & Pfeffer, 2006).

The concentrations of some creative sectors in the former industrial centre of Zaanstad are atfirst sight more surprising. However, the earlier mentioned ‘architectural quality-hypothesis’could prove true here as well. On the ‘Hembrug’ site, some characteristic and monumentalformer industrial buildings have been converted into office space. This location, at thecrossing of the Zaan River and the North Sea Canal, is regarded as a hotspot for creativeindustries by the municipalities of Zaanstad and Amsterdam. Other smaller-scale formerindustrial complexes along the Zaan River are also seen as potentially attractive places forcreative start-ups (http://www.zaanstad.nl).

Finally, Almere has not yet developed into a significant creative knowledge centre, althoughit has the ambition to become a ‘knowledge city’. The city still mainly has a residentialfunction and also does not have an ‘exciting’ image; people predominantly associate Almerewith a dormitory town. However, as was already mentioned in Chapter 4, Almere is steadilygaining importance as an employment centre and the maps also showed that at least the inner-city of Almere has a cluster of certain sectors. Many developments have taken place or arestill taking place in order to transform the city from a satellite town into a complete city withits own cultural facilities, like the construction of a theatre and a concert venue (Muzinq)(http://www.almere.nl). Whether this ‘artificial’ urban culture will help the city to developinto a creative cluster is still questionable and, according to Florida (2002), not very likely,but perhaps the companies that already settled there could function as a pull-factor.

5.2 Residential preferences of creative knowledge workers

Official data regarding the place of residence of specific occupational groups are not availableat the local level in The Netherlands, but the work of Groenemeijer (2002) provides someuseful insights. His research was based on the address lists of companies and institutions inAmsterdam. Since not all companies co-operated with the research and only companieslocated in the city of Amsterdam were included, it does not give a complete view, but still itcan at least indicate which neighbourhoods, towns or villages are popular with knowledgeworkers.

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The research showed that Amsterdam’s knowledge workers are dispersed across a largeregion, but there is a very large concentration in the city itself, especially within the A10 ringroad and south of the River IJ. A “north-south-axis” from the eastern and western harbourdistricts, via the inner city, Zuid and Buitenveldert to Amstelveen can be distinguished. Also,there is a considerable concentration in the traditional residential areas for higher incomegroups, like Het Gooi and Kennemerland. What is perhaps more surprising is that also manyknowledge workers who work in Amsterdam live in other cities within the Randstad, also incities that are located further away from Amsterdam, like Leiden, Utrecht and Den Haag.Almere, which is known as a commuter city, not surprisingly has a high score as well(Groenemeijer, 2002).

For the analysis of the choice for residential locations, a distinction was made between threeoccupational groups, which turned out to have different preferences. The first group consistsof knowledge workers in the financial and ICT sectors. This group predominantly lives insmall towns or villages, especially in Het Gooi and south of Amsterdam, and isunderrepresented in the most central urban milieus (less than 10%). Within Amsterdam,especially the Eastern Harbour District and the new area surrounding Amstel station (DeOmval) are popular residential areas for financial and ICT knowledge-workers. The suburbanorientation of this group is further illustrated by the fact that less than 20% lives within themunicipality of Amsterdam, compared to 48% of all workers in Amsterdam. Around 10% ofthis group even lives outside the four Randstad provinces.

The second group consists of scholars and teachers in natural, medical and economicdisciplines. This group has a more urban orientation than the first group, which manifestsitself mainly within the pre-war and post-war neighbourhoods, but also between 10 and 20%of this group lives within the central urban milieu. The neighbourhoods that belong to theSouth Axis (Museumkwartier, Apollobuurt and Buitenveldert), Watergraafsmeer andGaasperdam (Southeast) are the most popular locations for this group. The concentration inthe last mentioned districts can possibly be explained by the proximity of the Science Centrein Watergraafsmeer and the Academic Medical Centre (AMC) in southeast. Outside the corecity, Amstelveen, Kennemerland and the villages north and south of Amsterdam are the mostpopular locations.

The third group consists of scholars and teachers in law, societal and behavioural sciences aswell as creative workers in architecture, advertising, media and local government. This grouphas the most urban orientation of all three groups. Especially architects and civil servantspredominantly live within the municipality of Amsterdam: respectively 71% and 60%. Atleast 25% is living in the most central urban milieu. The largest concentrations are found inthe inner-city, the south axis, the Eastern Harbour District and Watergraafsmeer. OutsideAmsterdam, the creative workers are mainly living in other urban centres, like Haarlem,Leiden and Utrecht. The most popular neighbourhoods for knowledge workers turned out tobe the Western Canal belt and Jordaan within the city centre and Museumkwartier in Zuid. Inthose highly-urban neighbourhoods, large concentrations of all three groups can be found(Groenemeijer, 2002).

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In order to find an explanation for these concentrations, the Department of Spatial Planning ofthe municipality of Amsterdam carried out surveys among people living in Amsterdam. Theymade a distinction between knowledge workers and creative workers on the one hand andother occupational groups on the other hand. Also that research found clear concentrations ofboth creative workers and knowledge workers within the ring road and south of river IJ, whileother occupational groups live much more dispersed across the city. However, there are alsosome small differences between knowledge workers and creative workers. Whereasknowledge workers also have large concentrations in the most central parts of the inner city,creative workers are underrepresented there, probably as a result of the high rents, thecrowdedness and touristy atmosphere (DRO, 2006a).

For knowledge and creative workers, the location of their dwelling turned out to be moreimportant than the dwelling itself, whereas other occupational groups attached more value tocharacteristics of their dwelling than to its location. Often, a smaller dwelling near the citycentre was preferred over a larger one outside the ring road A10. Dynamic and tolerantneighbourhoods, with a large variety of people, functions and ideas, are also clearly preferredby creative and knowledge workers, and these neighbourhoods are also found in and aroundthe inner city of Amsterdam. Also, the quality and especially the variety of facilities wereregarded as very important, especially for creative workers who are dependent on face-to-face-contacts. Even when knowledge and creative workers do not actually make use of thosefacilities, they still like to live near them, possibly because of status factors. Furthermore, anattractive public space, interesting architecture, monuments and the proximity of green spacewere mentioned as important factors that determine the residential choice of knowledge andcreative workers (DRO, 2006a).

Still, the features of dwellings themselves, and especially the size, were often mentioned bycreative and knowledge workers as negative aspects of their residential situation. Related tothis is the lack of moving possibilities on the housing market. Most dwellings in Amsterdamare relatively small and located within apartment or tenement blocks. People who prefer alarger (single-family) dwelling do not have much choice on the housing market within thecore city and are more or less forced to move to the suburbs, where more types of housing canbe found. For all respondents who seriously considered moving out of the city, the small sizeof their dwelling was most mentioned as a reason (DRO, 2006a).

In order to retain and further develop its position as a creative knowledge city, DRO (2006a)concluded and suggested that interventions in the housing stock will be inevitable ifAmsterdam wants to establish itself as a creative knowledge city where people both live andwork. There should in particular be more variety in terms of housing size. On the other hand,DRO also suggested looking at what the region has to offer to creative knowledge workers.The variety of dwellings and residential milieus on the regional scale is much bigger. OutsideGreater Amsterdam, it is much easier to find larger dwellings and also the share of owner-occupied dwellings is much higher there, as was already mentioned in Chapter 4. High-statusresidential areas with detached houses can be found in Het Gooi and the suburbs of Haarlem(Bloemendaal and Aerdenhout), while Almere still has many cheaper single-family dwellingsto offer.

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5.3 Soft factors

5.3.1 Safety

The perception of safety is measured in Amsterdam by the ‘Objective Safety Index’. Thescore 100 stands for the average safety-score for Amsterdam in 2005, a score above 100means that an area is relatively unsafe and a score below 100 means that an area is relativelysafe. For the city as a whole, the ‘Objective Safety Index’ declined between 2001 and 2005.This is probably the result of a decline in the number of burglaries, most forms of theft andstreet robberies and improved traffic safety. The most unsafe places, which have a scorehigher than 130, are the areas surrounding the red-light district in the city centre, where manydrug-related crime takes place, and Bijlmer-East (Southeast), which has the most registeredviolent crimes.

A comparison of the police figures between 2001 and 2005 indicates that the Amsterdam-Amstelland police-region has indeed become safer over the last five years: there has been adecline in the number of registered crimes from 120,000 in 2001 to 96,000 in 2005. 86,000 ofthose registered crimes took place within the city of Amsterdam and 70% of all casesinvolved some sort of theft. All sorts of theft have, however, shown a decrease in the lastcouple of years, especially car-theft (-39%). An exception is the number of bicycle thefts,which has increased again after 2003 (+15%) and remains one of the biggest problems ofAmsterdam. It needs to be said though that this increase could also be caused by the newopportunity to report crime via the internet, which makes reporting a stolen bicycle a muchsmaller step to take. Burglary also declined drastically between 2001 and 2005, both fromhouses (-28%), motor vehicles (-24%) and especially from companies (-51%). Pick-pocketing(-42%) and street robbery (-34%) also decreased strongly between 2001 and 2005. Thefigures regarding violence show a less positive development: personal violence has decreasedwith 7% between 2001 and 2005, but threatening (+35%) and physical abuse (+11%) haveincreased strongly over the same period.

Finally, a look at the Liveability and Safety Monitor provides some insights into Amsterdam’ssafety. As is to be expected from a large city, people living in Amsterdam feel unsafe moreoften than the national average: 43% of all Amsterdam people above 16 feel unsafesometimes, compared to 25% of all Dutch people. In short, although there are still manyunsafe aspects, the Amsterdam police region has experienced a positive development over thelast couple of years (O+S, 2006).

5.3.2 Diversity and tolerance

According to Richard Florida (2002), an ethnically diverse society and a large gay communityand scene represent a tolerant climate and are therefore important preconditions for attractingcreative employment and creative workers. If this is true, then the city of Amsterdam shouldhave an advantaged position, since diversity and tolerance have been part of Amsterdam’simage already since the 16th century (see chapter 3).

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In chapter 4, it already became clear that 30% of the regional population, and even 40% of thecity’s population, is of non-Dutch origin and that this number has been increasing for years.In total, there are 176 different nationalities living together within the city of Amsterdam(O+S, 2006). This cultural diversity is also clearly visible in the streets of the city. Manyethnic entrepreneurs are running shops and food establishments in the city, especially inneighbourhoods where their own ethnic group is overrepresented. Examples are Islamicbutchers, Turkish bakeries, shoarma and döner takeaways, Surinamese toko’s and the largenumber of Chinese restaurants. Also cultural facilities belonging to (ethnic) minority groups,like mosques, synagogues and recently even a Chinese temple (in ‘Chinatown’, around theNieuwmarkt square) are clearly visible in the Amsterdam urban landscape. Also some othercores in the region have such visible multicultural aspects (for instance a big mosque inWormerveer), but in Amsterdam this cultural diversity is the most outspoken.

In terms of tolerance, the relatively big gay scene in the city of Amsterdam is one of the mostimportant aspects. The city presents itself as the ‘gay capital of the world’ and is one of thetop destinations for homosexual travellers. There are over one hundred gay bars, discos,saunas, video stores, bookshops, restaurants and hotels. In 1987, the first, and until now only,gay monument in the world has been opened in Amsterdam, which serves as a symbol againstdiscrimination. Amsterdam was also the city where the country’s first same-sex marriageswere registered in 2001 and one seventh of all gay marriages in the Netherlands take place inAmsterdam.

It is interesting that especially foreign gay visitors appreciate Amsterdam’s gay-friendlyclimate, while Amsterdam gays appreciate other European cities, like Berlin and Barcelona,better than their own city. This could be related to the positive image of Amsterdam as a gaycity: tourists will likely base their opinion on this international image, whereas residents aremore sensitive toward local developments that they encounter in their daily life. Although gaytourists are still an important economic group, their number has been decreasing for years.More diversity and renewal within the gay nightlife-scene will be needed in order for the cityto retain its position as a prominent gay centre. Apart from this, there are also perceptions bygay residents and local actors within the gay scene of decreasing tolerance and opennesstoward gays, increasing insecurity and religious fundamentalism, which are increasingly seenas threats to Amsterdam’s future position as a gay tourist destination. These are signs thatshould be taken seriously by the Amsterdam policy-makers (Hodes et al., 2006).

Also the liberal attitude toward soft drugs is a well-known example of Amsterdam’s tolerantclimate. The selling and use of soft drugs is tolerated (though not legalised, which is oftenthought), but only in designated ‘coffee shops’ and under the conditions that no more than 5gis sold per customer and that customers are over 18 years old. The legalisation, rather thancriminalisation, of prostitution is also part of this liberal attitude. Although this is in fact anational policy, prostitution mainly manifests itself in Amsterdam, as will be described infurther detail in the next section (http://www.amsterdam.info; http://www.amsterdam.nl).

In order to demonstrate that Amsterdam is proud of its diversity and tolerance, some ‘culturalniche’ festivals and events are organised annually, like the ‘Kwakoe’ cultural festival and theGay Pride festival, with a famous canal parade as its highlight. Also, ethnic groups are given

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the opportunity to manifest themselves by means of providing broadcasting space on local TVchannels (http://www.amsterdam.nl).

5.3.3 Amsterdam as a ‘Fun City’: places to go; things to do

As was mentioned earlier in this section, Amsterdam has a high density of cultural facilities,which gives the city a structural advantage over other Dutch cities as a location of settlementfor creative people. For example, in 2005, there were 11 cinemas, with in total 54 screens and10,283 seats. Also, there are 21 theatres or concert halls, the most famous ones being ‘HetConcertgebouw’ (814,000 visitors), ‘Royal Theatre Carré’ (486,000 visitors), ‘Paradiso’(485,000 visitors), ‘Melkweg’ (312,000 visitors), ‘Het Muziektheater’ (206,000 visitors), ‘DeKleine Komedie’ (117,000 visitors) and ‘Stadsschouwburg’ (115,000 visitors). Bigger pop-concerts often take place in the ‘Heineken Music Hall’ (capacity of 5,500) and in the‘Amsterdam Arena stadium’ (51,000 seats). In 2005, a new music theatre was opened at the IJRiver, mainly specialising in jazz and world music. It is one of the first parts of atransformation of the area east of the central railway station into a new cultural complex(O+S, 2006). In the wider region, Haarlem also has some theatre and music venues that areknown nationally, like ‘De Lichtfabriek’ (music and cultural events), ‘Het Patronaat’ (music)and ‘Stadsschouwburg’ (music and theatre) (http://www.haarlem.nl). Furthermore, Almerehas opened a music hall in 2005, ‘Muzinq’, but this venue has not been very successful untilnow and is even threatened with bankruptcy (http://www.almere.nl; Van Gijssel, 2007).

Amsterdam also has 51 museums, covering various topics like art and history, but alsoleisure. In total, the ten biggest museums attracted nearly five million visitors in 2005. Themost popular museums in 2005 were Van Goghmuseum (1.4 million visitors), AnneFrankhuis (965,000 visitors), Rijksmuseum (846,000), Sexmuseum Venustempel (525,000visitors) and Stedelijk Museum (183,000). The Rijksmuseum is expected to become secondagain after the current renovation process will be completed. Also Stedelijk Museum has hada decrease in the number of visitors over the last years, as a result of renovations and atemporary relocation. The Amsterdam museums are visited mainly by tourists, but also morethan half of Amsterdam’s residents visited a museum in 2005; especially young people(school trips). Also the Artis Zoo, the oldest and one of the largest zoos in the Netherlandswith over 900 kinds of animals, is a popular attraction, both for locals and tourists (O+S,2006). The rest of the region also accommodates some museums. In Zaanstad, for example,especially the open air museum Zaanse Schans, which has many characteristic windmills andhistoric houses, is a popular tourist attraction (around 900.000 visitors per year), but there area few other museums within the municipality as well (http://www.ontdekdezaanstreek.nu).Also Haarlem has a number of museums, of which the Frans Hals Museum and the TeylersMuseum (the oldest museum in the Netherlands) are the most well-known ones(http://www.haarlem.nl).

In terms of the annual number of visitors, the most important attractions of the region in 2005were the canal boat tours (2.7 million visitors), the ‘SAIL’ event (2.5 million visitors), whichtakes place every five years, and the ‘Amsterdam Arena’ stadium (1.5 million visitors), where‘AFC Ajax’ (soccer) and ‘Amsterdam Admirals’ (American football) play their matches and

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where big pop concerts take place. Also, many yearly festivals in Amsterdam attract a lot ofvisitors, both from within and outside the city. The ‘Kwakoe’ cultural festival is the biggestone with 1.1 million visitors, followed by the ‘Vrijmarkt’ at ‘Queens Day’ (600,000 visitors)and the music and theatre festival ‘Uitmarkt’ (500,000 visitors). Furthermore, the distinctivefairs and congresses that are held in the RAI congress centre attract a lot of visitors. Mostevents have experienced an increase in the number of visitors since 2001 (O+S, 2006).

Amsterdam is the largest nightlife centre of the Netherlands; around 10% of all Dutch pubsand restaurants are located in Amsterdam (Musterd & Deurloo, 2006; O+S, 2006). In total,there were around 1.250 pubs and the same number of restaurants. Although the number ofpubs and restaurants has been declining strongly for years in the Netherlands, in Amsterdamthe number has stayed nearly the same. Although many pubs have disappeared over the last10 years, there has been a large increase in the number of restaurants(http://www.os.amsterdam.nl). The main nightlife centres are Leidseplein, Rembrandtpleinand the red-light district, but also in other parts of the inner-city and in the 19th centuryneighbourhoods, some (concentrations of) bars and pubs can be found. The less touristy andrelatively cheap bars are located outside the main nightlife centres.

A famous aspect of Amsterdam’s urban landscape is the ‘coffee shop’, where cannabis isopenly sold and smoked. There are more than 300 distinctive coffee shops in Amsterdam,which are visited by many tourists. These coffee shops contribute to Amsterdam’s image as ‘aplace of fun’ and ‘the city where everything is possible’. Another aspect that contributes tothis image is the red-light district (De Wallen), located between Central Station andNieuwmarkt. Also this image of a ‘sex-city’ attracts many (low-budget) tourists every year(http://www.amsterdam.info). In this respect, it is interesting to mention that the municipalitywants to impose more strict regulation on prostitution and plans were made recently to closeone third of the red-light district. However, whether this will happen in the end is yet unclear,because of successful protests by the owners of the brothels (http://www.volkskrant.nl). It isalso unclear which effect the closure of such a large part of the red-light district would haveon tourism, since it is one of the main attractions for (certain groups of) tourists.

Finally, the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area is also a green region. The city itself has manyparks. Especially Vondelpark is used as a place to relax or sport by many people, both localsand tourists. Also, on the southern edge of Amsterdam, there is a large forest, AmsterdamseBos, which includes a long rowing track. The rest of the region also has much green space tooffer and is especially attractive because of its diversity in landscapes. Since the region isbordering the North Sea, there are beaches and dunes near Zandvoort, to the west of Haarlem.Also, Waterland and Zaanstreek have peat and polder landscapes, which are often used aswalking, cycling or other recreation spaces. Furthermore, Het Gooi is known for its forestsand hilly landscape, which makes this sub-region also attractive as a walking and recreationarea. This diverse green structure in the direct vicinity of the big city can be a major point ofattraction for knowledge workers. DRO (2006b) mentioned the proximity of green space andwater as an important settlement factor for creative knowledge workers.

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5.3.4 Attractiveness and authenticity

Amsterdam ranks first in the Netherlands in terms of its historic character (Musterd &Deurloo, 2006). The city has a unique morphology with many canals, narrow streets and oldhouses. Amsterdam’s historic city centre has largely survived the Second World War and thepressure of modernization and has now developed into a cultural and tourist centre and a highstatus residential location. In the preservation of the historic character of the inner-city, theurban social movements have played a prominent role. In the 1970s, plans were proposed totransform parts of the city centre into an ‘American-style’ CBD, including the conversion ofsome canals into streets and the replacement of the Jordaan neighbourhood by large-scaleoffice construction. These proposals, as well as alternative plans, generated mass protests andeven violent riots, which were organised by the various anti-growth coalitions that struggledfor a ‘liveable city’ on a human scale” and the preservation of historical street patterns. Thesocial movements won and the reconstruction plans were withdrawn and replaced by a socialpolicy of urban renewal without displacement. The first metro line was constructed, butfurther extensions were cancelled and the destruction of the character of the Nieuwmarkt areaas a result of the metro construction was mitigated by restoration with lots of public housingand small shops that fit in well with the city’s historic landscape. The urban social movementswere thus able to block a radical reconstruction of the historic city centre and even helped thecity of Amsterdam to realise its own preservation policy (Terhorst & Van de Ven, 2003; seealso chapter 3).

Amsterdam now has over 8,000 official monuments, of which 7,395 are located within thehistoric city centre. It is not allowed to tear down these buildings and their use and physicalchanges are subject to strict government control. Amsterdam’s historic city centre has beendesignated as a Historical Preservation District a couple of years ago, which means that non-listed buildings and the public domain have also become subject to strict political controls. Abuilding does not necessarily need to be a monument to be preserved and new constructionhas to fit well into the historic urban landscape (Terhorst & Van de Ven, 2003; O+S, 2006).

In the wider region, some other historical cities and towns can be found, some of which arepopular with tourists. Haarlem has an attractive historical inner-city, but also the old(fisherman’s) towns of Volendam, Edam, Marken, Monnickendam and Muiden havehistorical and characteristic old-Dutch houses. In Zaanstad, there are many monumentalformer industrial buildings, which have now been converted into office space, thatcommemorate the status of Zaanstreek as the oldest industrial area of Europe(http://www.parelsinzaanstad.com).

This authenticity, in combination with the long tradition of openness, tolerance and diversity,are hard to copy elsewhere and give the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area the right profile tofurther develop itself as a creative knowledge city (Musterd & Deurloo, 2006). At the sametime, Amsterdam is also facing numerous challenges and problems that can hamper thisdevelopment. These challenges, as well as the policy agenda related to them, will bedescribed in the next chapter.

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5.4 Conclusions

Based on the statistical analysis, we can conclude that the creative knowledge sectors togethertake in a prominent place in the economy of the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area: nearly one-third of all companies and more than one quarter of all employment belongs to thosecategories. Even 24% of all Dutch creative knowledge companies is located within the region.The region is especially dominant in creative industries (e.g. radio and TV, music and arts,video, film, music production and photography, and publishing), but also financial servicesand law and business services are overrepresented within the region.

Creative knowledge sectors are not evenly spread across the region. Rather, they areconcentrated in a few ‘creative hubs’, which have an attractive environment or a strategiclocation near a motorway, a railway station or the airport. The residential preferences ofcreative and knowledge workers, as far as they are known, show a similar pattern. For thesegroups, the living environment turns out to be more important than the dwelling itself andespecially the creative workers prefer a central-urban living environment.

However, policy-makers should be cautious with making generalisations. Groenemeijer(2002) showed that not all creative workers and knowledge workers have the same residentialpreferences and sometimes even do not have an urban orientation (like the financial and ICTworkers). This, in combination with the dispersal of companies within the creative knowledgesectors across several parts of the region that was shown by the statistical analysis, gives theimpression that it makes sense not to focus too much attention on the city of Amsterdam only.Before taking drastic measures on the Amsterdam housing market, which can in fact evendamage the socio-economic and socio-cultural mix and the specific character of Amsterdam’sinner-city districts, regional co-ordination of the housing market should perhaps be consideredfirst. Unfortunately, in this respect, the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area and in fact theNetherlands in general is not very successful yet, as will be described in more detail inChapter 6.

In terms of soft factors, we can conclude that Amsterdam has the right profile to attract andretain creative knowledge firms and workers. The city has an historic inner-city with a uniquemorphology and safety has improved in most fields over the last couple of years. The city alsooffers many cultural and leisure facilities and has an international reputation of being atolerant city, although this reputation is being challenged recently. Finally, the green structurein both the city and the region should be regarded as a valuable asset. It will be an importantchallenge for Amsterdam and its neighbouring municipalities to keep this favourable profileintact.

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6 Improving competitiveness in the Amsterdam MetropolitanArea

6.1 Strategic programmes of regional governments, institutions and coalitions

6.1.1 Regional co-operation: Amsterdam Metropolitan Area, Stadsregio Amsterdam, andtarget-specific co-operations

In chapter 2, the most important regional co-operative networks and institutions have alreadybeen introduced. In this section we will shortly discuss the results and most important plansand initiatives of these regional co-operations in the last few years.The ‘Regionale Samenwerking Amsterdam’ (‘Regional Co-operation Amsterdam’ - RSA)aims to strengthen co-operation in the region by organizing meetings, exchanging informationand representing the interests of the region. One of the main activities of the RSA is afrequent meeting of the municipalities with other regional partners (like the provinces ofNorth Holland and Flevoland and the Chambers of Commerce in the region). This initiative isknown as the Noordvleugelconferentie (North Wing Conference). The name refers to the RSAarea being the northern part of a larger conurbation, internationally known as the Randstad.The North Wing Conferences are an initiative of the national government and the region, inorder to strengthen the international competitive position of this part of the Randstad. Thefirst North Wing Conference was organized in 2001. Each conference results in decisions onstrategic development projects, mainly in the spheres of housing, economic development andinfrastructure. Following the preceding chapters, we will refer to the RSA / North Wing areaas the ‘Amsterdam Metropolitan Area’ in the remainder of this chapter.

The ‘Regionaal Orgaan Amsterdam’ (ROA) (‘Regional Body Amsterdam’) was founded inthe 1990s, actually in anticipation of the planned introduction of the city province. This cityprovince, however, was never realised as indicated before (chapters 2 and 3). Since November2006, ROA changed its name in Stadsregio Amsterdam (Metropolitan Area Amsterdam). Itaims to improve the area’s infrastructure, accessibility, quality of life and the economicdevelopment. Initially, Almere was also part of ROA, but it left the organisation some yearsago. Still, Almere participates in some elements of the Stadsregio programme. Until recentlythis constellation was referred to as the ‘ROA+’: the 16 municipalities of StadsregioAmsterdam plus Almere. In section 6.4, we will discuss one of the most influential policydocuments of the Stadsregio: the regional economic development plan OPERA.

Apart from the two multi-target regional co-operations, several target-specific regionalinitiatives emerged in recent years. In each of them another group of partners is involved, butmost often these initiatives are rather closely linked to either the Amsterdam MetropolitanArea or the Stadsregio. Three of these initiatives are about accessibility and connectivity,albeit addressing different aspects. First, Amsterdam Airport Area is a coalition encouragingthe development of Schiphol Airport, not only as an important air traffic hub, but also as anemployment and facilities centre. Apart from two airport-related companies (Schiphol Airport

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Development Company and Schiphol Real Estate), this partnership includes the cities ofAmsterdam and Almere, the municipality of Haarlemmermeer, the province of NorthHolland, the Amsterdam Port Authority, the Dutch national air carrier KLM and two realestate developers. Second, the North Sea Canal Area alliance consists of a policy platformand a regional development agency aiming for a sustainable economic development of theNorth Sea Canal and the harbours of Amsterdam, IJmuiden and Zaanstad. Apart from themunicipalities bordering the North Sea Canal and the Amsterdam Port Authority, the nationalgovernment (through Rijkswaterstaat, the government agency in charge of the national roadand water infrastructure), the Amsterdam Chamber of Commerce and Corus (the largestindustrial complex in the area) are also involved. Third, in 2003, the city of Amsterdaminitiated the founding of the ‘Platform Bereikbaarheid Noordvleugel’ (Platform AccessibilityNorth Wing), a platform aimed at gaining support for major infrastructural projects anddevelopment strategies at the level of the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area.

At the moment of writing this report, the Randstad as a whole seems to reclaim a prominentposition on the Dutch policy agenda. An advisory commission chaired by the former DutchPrime Minister Wim Kok (Commissie Versterking Randstad, 2007) was asked to assess theRandstad’s international economic position and to present possible measures to strengthen itscompetitiveness. Its main focus was on administrative and policy structures that might blockor hamper economic dynamics in the Randstad area. The key problem according to the Kokcommission is a lack of political ‘ownership’: it is unclear who is responsible for thedevelopment of the Randstad as a whole. An impressive number of administrative bodies,networks, platforms and working groups are involved in initiatives for the Randstad or partsof it. The plea of the Kok commission to strive for a regional government at the Randstadlevel is not surprising and definitely not new. The Randstad lobby seems more powerful thanever. It is probably no coincidence that the preliminary results of an OECD study with similaradvices was already leaked to the press three months before officially being published, inexactly the same week that the Kok commission presented its advice. Earlier attempts havefailed due to the unwillingness of the existing provinces in the Randstad to merge, but also(and maybe even more) because the provinces outside the Randstad dislike the idea of aconcentration of political and economic power in the West of the Netherlands. It will dependamongst others on the policy agenda of the new Dutch coalition if this attempt to create apolycentric Dutch metropolis will be more successful. It is more likely, though, that the NorthWing will remain the most relevant regional level for the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area.

6.1.2 Important networks and institutions

Apart from local, regional and national governmental institutions, there are also several semi-governmental and non-governmental institutions as well as public-private networks that playan important role in strengthening the competitiveness of the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area.We will focus here on those institutions and networks that are involved in strengthening theAmsterdam Metropolitan Area as an attractive location for creative, innovative andknowledge-intensive companies.

The Chamber of Commerce Amsterdam is an important intermediary organisation betweenbusiness, government and citizen interests in the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area. The

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geographic reach of the Chamber of Commerce Amsterdam includes the largest part of theAmsterdam Metropolitan Area. For initiatives and strategies involving the entire metropolitanarea, increasingly co-operation is sought with the Chambers of Commerce of adjacent areaslike Flevoland and Gooi- and Eemland. Next to the chamber’s responsibilities for regionaleconomic development in general, several specific programmes have recently been developedat the crossroads of creative and knowledge-intensive industries, innovation andcompetitiveness. Examples that will be discussed in more detail later are the Chamber’sinvolvement in the ‘Creative Metropolis’ programme and the Regional Innovation Strategy,as well as the strategic economic development report Going for Gold. In addition to (andpartly overlapping with) these programmes, the Chamber of Commerce has recentlydeveloped an action plan for the regional creative industries for the years 2006-2008 (Kamervan Koophandel Amsterdam, 2006). In the various actions included in this plan, the Chamberis involved as either leader, partner or adviser. The plan includes amongst others: an inventoryof the wide array of already existing projects and initiatives; the support and co-financing of anew regional development Agency for the creative industries; stimulating internationalcreative industries trade missions; participation in the development of a ‘talent factory’ and an‘academy of excellence’; and participation in the development of a international design centrein the new central business district of Amsterdam, the South Axis.

Kenniskring Amsterdam (‘Knowledge Circle Amsterdam’), founded in 1994, is a jointinitiative of the municipality, the Chamber of Commerce, several national and multinationalcompanies, and higher education institutions. The Kenniskring regularly organises meetingsto encourage the exchange of ideas and interests between government, business and highereducation partners. These meetings frequently lead to joint projects and initiatives of thepartners involved. Examples include the initiative for the branch network Amsterdam NewMedia Association and the start-up of an expertise centre for logistics and transport. TheKenniskring has initiated the ‘Amsterdam Innovation Motor’ (AIM) project, meant tostimulate the development of three innovative business clusters in particular: ICT/New Media,Sustainability, and Life Sciences. Meanwhile, AIM has become an independent organizationand through one of its three spearheads, ICT / new media, it has become an important playerin initiatives to develop the creative industries as well (see section 6.1.3).

iMMovator is a cross media network and expertise centre, operating from Hilversum. Thoughit is in principle a national expertise centre, iMMovator mainly focuses its activities on thearea called ‘the Creative Axis’ in the northern part of the Randstad (see section 6.1.3).Recently it published the Cross Media Monitor 2006, an inventory of the state ofdevelopment of the ICT sector and the creative industries for the northern Randstad as awhole and the cities and sub-regions within this area (iMMovator & HogeschoolINHOLLAND, 2006). At the moment of writing this report (April 2007), iMMovator mainlyfocused on the themes broadband, interactive TV and gaming, but this focus might change inthe future depending on the further development of the ICT and creative sector. Withactivities like ‘Cross Media Cafés’ and projects like the ‘Expert group Digital Television’ and‘Digital Market Places’, iMMovator wants to facilitate the innovation process in the crossmedia sector. The expertise centre co-operates with several higher education institutes, localand regional governments, multinational companies and public and commercial broadcasters.

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The Waag Society was founded in 1994 especially to develop new and improvedcommunicative technologies means to enhance social interaction. Its roots lay in the firstdigital society of the Netherlands, the Digitale Stad (‘Digital City’). The foundation works inparticular for people with limitations in communication; it has developed, for example,software for cognitive handicapped and for elderly. The Waag Society also develops digitalart and educational programmes and projects about themes like history, cultural heritage, andintegration. It has gradually developed into a research, test and development laboratory withan extensive national and international network of partners and clients. It is also activelyinvolved in the organisation of several meeting and networking events like the PICNIC CrossMedia Week, attracting about 5,000 participants in 2006.

PICNIC is becoming an influential organisation itself, too. Next to the yearly event, theorganisation offers a website which is intensively used and regularly organises debates andother networking activities. The first edition of PICNIC was in 2006 and existed of aconference for creative and innovative professionals (attracting about 1400 delegates); severalpartner events where creatives from various backgrounds could meet; and public events. Thelatter were especially aimed at the local population of Amsterdam. The opinions on thesuccess of the event were quite divided. The organisation itself was very satisfied and theconference participants gave very high grades to the event in the evaluations. The city ofAmsterdam and the national government welcomed the event too, judging from theirgenerous subsidies and support. Many creatives for which this event was intended, however,could not afford the conference fee (despite the government subsidies, the fee was 750 Eurofor a three-day conference) and felt that the conference and the event as a whole met theirneeds insufficiently. The second edition of PICNIC in 2007 will try to meet this criticismpartly in particular in an extension of the public event programme; the conference fee isplanned to rise further, though.

The foundation Kennisland (‘Knowledgeland’) wants to develop the Netherlands as a ‘keyregion in the international knowledge economy’, in a way that creates ‘economic and socialadded value’. To realise this mission, Kennisland develops strategies, innovative projects and‘learning networks’ in co-operation with governments, business, knowledge institutions andNGOs. Kennisland has evaluated the project applications for the ‘Creative Challenge Call’(see section 1.4), helped to start up the Amsterdam Innovation Motor, and participates inseveral national and international consortia like Creative Commons Netherlands, DigitalPioneers, and the European P2P-Fusion project. In those consortia and projects it often workstogether with the Waag Society. Though Kennisland operates nationally, it is important forthe Amsterdam Metropolitan Area in particular, not only because it is based in Amsterdam,but also since this region is the leading media hub and one of the leading ICT hubs in theNetherlands.

Finally, an increasingly important network for the creative industries in the AmsterdamMetropolitan Area is Amsterdam Creativity Exchange. The Amsterdam Creativity Exchange(ACX) offers a platform for the presentation of plans, projects and people, for stimulatingexchange and interaction. The ACX aims to bring individuals and organisations together toexplore and stimulate creative potential. It regularly organises networking events at whichvarious economic, cultural and political issues affecting the creative industries are discussed,

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and showcasing events for creative talent. The ACX website functions as a hub for onlinediscussions between the members, coming mainly from the creative industries but also fromother backgrounds (researchers, policy makers, investors etc.).

6.1.3 The ‘creative metropolis’ programme

In 2005, the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area met in the 4th ‘North Wing Conference’. Thecentral theme of this conference was how to increase the economic competitiveness of theAmsterdam Metropolitan Area. The creative industries were singled out as one of the mostpromising sectors, and a group of aldermen was commissioned to develop a strategicprogramme for the further development of the creative industries. The group was advised by awider group of policy-makers from municipalities and the Chamber of Commerce, as well asexperts from the creative industries and consultancy firms. This resulted in the ‘CreativeMetropolis’ programme (Stuurgroep Creatieve As, 2005). A ‘creative axis’ between the citiesof Amsterdam, Haarlem, Hilversum, and Zaanstad was considered as the core of the creativeregional economy. The actions proposed therefore are also focused on these four cities. Thefour ‘prioritized actions’ were:

The foundation of a Creative Development Company, aimed at the internationalacquisition of creative industries, strengthening the knowledge infrastructure on thecreative economy, and improving service provision to creative starters;

Experiments with transformation: industrial locations as testing grounds forspontaneous transformation into creative working environments;

The foundation of the Academy of Excellence IDAFIMA. Each year, 20 young toptalents from across the globe and from various disciplines will be invited to developnew concepts and product innovations. The main disciplines that this initiative isaiming at are fashion, industrial design, mobile services and media, architecture,visualization, graphic design and merchandising;

Installing a taskforce to make better use of the creative potential of young people at alleducational levels. Especially the talents of the ethnic minority youth should beacknowledged and stimulated more through initiatives of this task force.

Meanwhile, the ‘Creative Metropolis’ programme has evolved to a web of mutually linkedcreative cities, including also Almere, Amersfoort and Utrecht. In September 2006, the mostrecent progress report was published (Projectgroep Creatieve As, 2006). The participants inthe Creative Metropolis programme have managed to attract funds from the nationalgovernment programmes ‘Peaks in the Delta’ and ‘Creative Challenge Call’ (see chapter 1),that will probably contribute to realising the programme’s goals considerably. In addition, theparticipating municipalities also invest in the programme themselves, and undertake attemptsto attract European funds and business contributions. Though the Creative Metropolisprogramme is still largely in its planning phase, concrete results should be reached within thenext few years.

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6.1.4 The Regional Innovation Strategy

The most recent development in regional competitiveness policy is the Regional InnovationStrategy. The 5th North Wing Conference in November 2005 decided that such a strategyshould be established (see section 6.1.1. for more information on the North WingConference). This strategy was not yet formally accepted at the time of finishing this report(April 2007), but this was due to happen very soon. The following is therefore based on themost recent draft and not on the final version of the Regional Innovation Strategy (Kamersvan Koophandel Amsterdam, Flevoland & Gooi- en Eemland, 2006).

The Regional Innovation Strategy (RIS) aims at establishing more focus, critical mass,coherence and impact in the implementation of innovation policy within the Amsterdammetropolitan Area. The actions proposed are supposed to start soon and should be benefitingthe entire Metropolitan Area. The RIS should be seen as a ‘work in progress’ and willtherefore be evaluated and updated regularly in the coming years. A large part of the RISactually consists of already existing or planned initiatives that so far were arranged in a toofragmented way at the local and regional level. Three types of actions are proposed:

actions to enhance the ‘generic innovation climate’; actions targeting specific clusters; and actions to improve co-operation and synergy within the Amsterdam metropolitan

Area.The generic innovation-enhancing actions include amongst others the improvement ofknowledge transfer; the improvement of the ‘match’ between investors and innovativeentrepreneurs; a coherent promotion campaign of the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area as ‘topknowledge and innovation region’; and the introduction of a digital expat office. The clusterstargeted are ICT and creative industries; trade and logistics; life sciences; and sustainability.Most actions for these clusters involve the establishment or encouragement of cluster-specificnetworks, events, and institutes like the Creative Development Company mentioned before inthe ‘Creative Metropolis’ programme. The actions to improve co-operation and synergy at theregional level are deliberately not aimed at creating yet another institutional layer. The largestproblem as perceived by most policy-makers and business representatives is that there arealready too many different institutions responsible for parts of the regional-economicdevelopment. Therefore it is encouraged to form a ‘board of directors’ representing therelevant existing institutions, responsible for leading the regional innovation programme, anda regional organisation that implements the programme, also existing of representatives ofrelevant existing institutions.

6.2 Current policy ambitions in the largest cities of the Amsterdam MetropolitanArea

Before addressing the most relevant sectoral policies in more detail, we will give a briefimpression of the overall strategic goals of the currently ruling local governments ofAmsterdam and the most important sub-centres of the Metropolitan Area: Almere, Haarlem,Zaanstad and Haarlemmermeer. The left-wing government of the city of Amsterdam, chosenin 2006, focuses on Amsterdam as an attractive location for enterprises. Nevertheless, it wants

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to fight the ‘reverse side of the knowledge economy: the growing inequality’. The motto ofthe programme agreement, ‘people make Amsterdam’, expresses that the city governmentwants everyone to feel welcome in their city. According to the city government, sustainableeconomic growth can only be realized by participation of all citizens. For the period 2006-2010 the ambitions of the city government are:

the attraction of international visitors; to facilitate a creative and knowledge intensive climate; a highly qualified population; Schiphol airport as a mainport; an attractive city and region; a high quality of housing and living; co-operation between the municipality and (small) businesses; less bureaucracy.

(Gemeente Amsterdam, 2006a)

Of these ambitions, the Schiphol ambition is probably the most controversial and complicatedone. ‘Mainport’, by the way, is an English word invented by the Dutch which is almostmeaningless beyond Dutch borders. With this term, Dutch policy-makers express theeconomic importance of Schiphol and the seaport of Rotterdam as hubs of infrastructure,logistics and distribution. Schiphol does not lie on Amsterdam’s municipal territory, but in theneighbouring municipality Haarlemmermeer. After years of unlimited growth ambitions inwhich Schiphol was mainly seen as a welcome ‘job motor’, this municipality has recentlybecome much less pleased with the presence of the national airport at its territory. Severalresidential extensions and business parks are hardly feasible in Haarlemmermeer if Schipholkeeps expanding, and some of the existing neighbourhoods around Schiphol are alreadybecoming close to unliveable because of noise and air pollution (Bontje, 2005). A secondparty threatening to spoil Amsterdam’s plans with Schiphol is the national government. Sofar, Schiphol is a publicly owned company with the Dutch national government and the citiesof Amsterdam and Rotterdam as shareholders. In 2006 the national government wanted to sellits shares to set the privatisation of Schiphol in motion. Amsterdam blocked this privatisationplan and held on to its shares. The outcome of this dispute will become clear later in 2007.

Almere’s development agenda has always been largely determined in The Hague, and partlyalso in Amsterdam and Utrecht, since it has had a major role in catering for the housing needof the Amsterdam and Utrecht metropolitan areas. Meanwhile, Almere has become a largecity for Dutch standards with about 180,000 inhabitants and its municipal council isincreasingly determining its own fate. Still, Almere’s growth is seen as a national policypriority. In 2003, an Integral Development Plan (Projectbureau Toekomst Almere, 2003) wasagreed upon between the city of Almere, the province of Flevoland and the Dutch nationalgovernment. Almere agreed to build an additional 60,000 dwellings between 2010 and 2030.This would mean that Almere becomes the fourth city of the Netherlands. At the same time,however, Almere’s ambition is to improve the balance between its residential and itseconomic function. Too many Almere residents are still forced to commute to their jobs insurrounding cities because of a shortage of employment opportunities in their own city. Thenumber of jobs in Almere should therefore grow faster than the number of dwellings in thecoming decades. A third ambition of Almere is to become a more urban place. Ambitious

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projects like the new city centre and the mixed-use extension Almere Poort are first steps inthat direction (Bontje, 2004b).

Haarlem’s built environment has reached its municipal borders. Maybe this is the reason whythis city seems much less ambitious in its development goals than most of its neighbours inthe Amsterdam Metropolitan Area. A strategic development plan is hard to find. Thedevelopment plan issued within the framework of the Dutch Large Cities Policy for 2005-2010 (Gemeente Haarlem, 2004) is probably the best indicator of Haarlem’s developmentpriorities. Inner-city regeneration projects are given at least as much priority as strengtheningthe economic position of Haarlem. The city invests considerably in its cultural facilities, inmaintenance and liveability, and in redevelopment of the area around the central railwaystation. Haarlem chooses to profile itself as a ‘multifaceted cultural city’. Culture and tourismare seen as the main assets for economic growth. This includes day visitors: Haarlem has builtup a sound reputation as one of the best shopping destinations of the Netherlands. The cityalso hopes to profit more from its strategic location near Schiphol airport.

Zaanstad has formulated four strategic targets in its development programme, which is like inHaarlem the result of the Dutch Large Cities Policy: ‘sustainable strengthening of theeconomic structure’, ‘city atmosphere’, ‘Zaanstad is worth seeing’, and ‘doing daily thingsright’. The latter refers to ‘ordinary’ municipal tasks like maintenance of public space thatshould be improved first before investing in the other three goals. Zaanstad wants to increaseits share in regional economic growth and sees the creative industries as one of the mostpromising sectors to reach this goal. The city government identifies three dilemmas to besolved in order to improve its economic strength and residential quality: spatial restructuring(increasing Zaanstad’s identity as a city and overcoming infrastructural barriers); enablingeconomic development despite spatial constraints (the noise contours of Schiphol airport andthe development restrictions in protected landscapes); and getting the municipal budget inorder (Gemeente Zaanstad, 2004).

6.3 Amsterdam’s economic policy: HERMEZ and Amsterdam Top City

The Amsterdam economic policy in the period 2002-2006 was based on three pillars: Strengthening of the production structure: using the existing opportunities to stimulate

the pillars of the Amsterdam economy. The main focus in the acquisition of newcompanies was on adding strengths to the harbour, manufacturing, ICT and themedical and biotechnology.

Improvement of the business climate: creating a vibrant climate for entrepreneurialactivities. This meant offering more space for large and small businesses and therevitalization of shopping centres. In addition, labour market problems had to besolved, the accessibility of Amsterdam needed to be improved, and the city needed asafer working and living environment.

Increasing the organising power in city and region: co-operation and networksbetween entrepreneurs, knowledge institutes and administrations were needed to solveproblems and initiate new projects and plans. The city of Amsterdam supportedstarting enterprises and local and regional organizations of entrepreneurs.

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The evaluation (EZ 2005) of the economic policy of the municipality of Amsterdam statesthat this policy of the city has been successful to a large extent. The so-called Hermezprogram stimulated (in co-operation with commercial parties) the strengthening of thediversity, cohesion and profile of the Amsterdam economy. This had been realised byfinancing projects and developing (long-term) strategies. The current economic structure ismore balanced and less sensitive for global economic downturns; these conditions arenecessary for a stronger economic growth. However, there still is a sense of urgency toreinforce the Amsterdam economy, because of the increasing international competition andthe need for jobs.

The economic policy document HERMEZ (EZ 2002) also touched upon topics relevant forthe development of the creative knowledge city. This economic policy programme did not yetidentify the creative or cultural industries as an important pillar of urban and regionaleconomic development. It did, however, pay considerable attention to the ICT and new mediacluster. The presence of one of Europe’s most advanced internet hubs made Amsterdam avery attractive location for ICT and new media companies. The aim was to connect everyAmsterdam workplace and home to a broadband network. Currently, more than 80% of allAmsterdam residents has access to internet (http://www.os.amsterdam.nl). Another, lesssector-specific policy priority in the HERMEZ programme was a more efficient use of thehuge knowledge potential in Amsterdam. Several measures were taken to improve contactsand co-operation between the municipality, institutes of higher education, and knowledge-intensive companies. The most influential network organization in this respect is theKenniskring Amsterdam (‘Knowledge Circle Amsterdam’), a joint initiative of themunicipality, the Chamber of Commerce, and Amsterdam higher education institutions. Thisorganization is responsible for the ‘Amsterdam Innovation Motor’ project, meant to stimulatethe development of three innovative business clusters in particular: ICT/New Media,Sustainability, and Life Sciences. However, the Amsterdam Economic Department stressesthe importance of Amsterdam’s broad and diversified economic base and does not want toneglect other traditional pillars of the urban and regional economy, like the financial sector,the harbour, and the airport.

The municipal elections of 2006 changed the local political scene of Amsterdamconsiderably: the broad coalition of Christian democrats (CDA), social democrats (PvdA) andliberals (VVD) was replaced by a socialist-green coalition (PvdA-GroenLinks). This resultedin a new ambitious economic development agenda. Amsterdam Topstad (Amsterdam TopCity) (2006) was the first outline of a programme to make Amsterdam and its MetropolitanArea more competitive. The main target of this programme is to bring ‘Amsterdam back inthe top 5 of European business locations’. This goal refers to the influential yearly EuropeanCities Monitor of Cushman & Wakefield, in which Amsterdam lost its 5th place to Barcelonain 2005. Creative industries, innovation and knowledge are seen as important ingredients toregain Amsterdam’s prominent position in Europe (Gemeente Amsterdam, 2006b).

The Amsterdam Topstad programme was still in development at the moment of writing thisreport. However, it already contributed to slightly different accents in Amsterdam’s economicpolicy:

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Small and medium-sized enterprises: a better service delivery by the city toentrepreneurs and creating excellent entrepreneurial conditions in Amsterdam;

Innovation and knowledge infrastructure: increase the innovative power of the city; Tourism and congresses: Amsterdam as a hospitable city, with the profile of an

international tourist, congress and leisure centre; Accessibility and connectivity: improvement of the in- and external infrastructure of

the city, and more cohesion between Schiphol airport and the region; Location for businesses: offering enough large- and small-scale locations to (starting)

enterprises and keeping the balance between demand and supply on the labour-market.

6.4 Regional economic policy: the OPERA plan and ‘Going for Gold’

Stadsregio Amsterdam (at that time still known as ‘ROA’) has developed a regional economicdevelopment strategy that is most often referred to by its Dutch acronym OPERA(Ontwikkelings Plan Economie Regio Amsterdam). The OPERA plan (ROA, 2004) resultsfrom the ambition of Stadsregio Amsterdam to stimulate and facilitate a healthy anddifferentiated economy which is able to compete internationally. Four structural targets havebeen defined to strengthen the regional economic structure: optimising the use of the regionaleconomy’s specific profile; maintaining the broad and diversified economic base; increasingthe coherence of the regional economy; and a spatially balanced regional economicdevelopment. Most policy actions linked to these targets are either linked to the Stadsregioarea or the larger regional entity of the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area, but some proposedpolicy actions are also at the level of the entire Randstad.

The international orientation, the prominent position in international networks (transport,ICT) and the contact- and knowledge-intensive character of most segments are highlighted asspecific strengths of the metropolitan economy. Most policy measures proposed in the planaim to strengthen this profile further. To improve connectivity, a further growth of Schipholairport is encouraged, but only to the extent that this contributes to regional development. Theseaport should also grow and be better connected by sea (to enable larger cargo ships to reachthe harbour) and by land (with improved road and rail connections). The ICT infrastructure,which is already quite advanced, should be improved through a regional glass fibre network.To improve the economic balance within the region, relatively weak sub-regions like the Zaanarea and IJmond are targeted with additional structure-enhancing policies. Both sub-regionshave developed a rather one-sided economic profile: food production in the Zaan area, steel(Corus) and fishery in IJmond. The region’s knowledge and innovation structure shouldmainly be strengthened through improvements of spatial conditions. Specific policy measuresmentioned in this regard are the regional glass fibre network and the development of scienceparks and incubators. The OPERA plan also mentions ‘development of networks’ and‘general spatial policy aimed at an innovative climate’, but does not specify these vaguegoals. Finally, the OPERA plan calls for the development of a regional office location policyand a better ‘tuning’ of business location development between the municipalities of theMetropolitan Area. Most of this programme eventually has to be realised by themunicipalities, working together with relevant institutions, companies, the province of NorthHolland and sometimes also the Dutch national government. The role that the Stadsregio

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plays in this process is mainly supporting municipal actions, bringing the parties involvedtogether, co-ordinating regional development programmes and/or offering subsidies toencourage regional development programmes.

In the same year, the Chamber of Commerce Amsterdam published the strategic policydocument Going for Gold (Kamer van Koophandel Amsterdam, 2004). Even though thegeographic area covered by the Chamber of Commerce Amsterdam is considerably smallerthan the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area, this policy report was aiming at the metropolitan areaas a whole. The policy programme proposed in the report resulted from co-operation anddiscussion with five Chambers of Commerce from neighbouring areas, business NGOs andlabour unions. The report can therefore be seen as the spatial-economic policy agenda for thenext decades according to business representatives in the entire Amsterdam MetropolitanArea. The report is full of sports metaphors. The ‘gold’ in the title stands for the highambitions of regional business, aiming to further strengthen the international competitivenessand connectivity of the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area. Significant investments are needed tomaintain or improve these; otherwise the region might face ‘the danger of relegation’. Thekey economic sectors and the spatial-economic foundations on which they depend arecombined in 5 ‘Olympic rings’: ‘logistics and manufacturing’; ‘business and trade’;‘knowledge, innovation, culture and tourism’; ‘space and infrastructure’; and ‘labour market,residential and living environment’.

The report proposes four ‘coalitions for economic development’. They should encourage thedevelopment of the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area as an international centre of business andtrade; an international logistics and distribution centre; an international cultural and touristcentre; and a centre of innovation. In addition, two ‘joint ventures for coherent spatialdevelopment’ are proposed: one for the urbanised corridor Haarlemmermeer – Amsterdam –Almere, and one for the logistic-manufacturing corridor North Sea Canal – Schiphol –Aalsmeer. For each of these coalitions and joint ventures, a public-private partnership withlocal and regional governmental institutions, business representatives and NGOs is proposed.Altogether, the Going for Gold strategy aims at organising the Amsterdam Metropolitan Areaas a kind of common enterprise. Since the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area is a relatively smallregion compared to most of its competitors, the region will have to ‘outsmart’ those regionswith a larger internal market, and this requires a joint effort of public and private partners inthe view of regional business. Interestingly, the strategic policy agendas of regional business(Going for Gold) and regional policy-makers (the OPERA plan) seem to be very close to eachother and largely even overlapping. Apparently regional business and regional policy-makersincreasingly manage to find each other in joint interests in the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area.Meanwhile this has resulted in several strategic programmes targeting more specifically thecreative knowledge sectors, like the Creative Metropolis programme and the RegionalInnovation Strategy presented before.

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6.5 Metropolitan marketing: ‘I Amsterdam’

In 2004, the organization of Amsterdam Partners was founded in order to promote the city. ‘IAmsterdam’ is the new logo of Amsterdam and the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area. This citymarketing initiative has been developed as a means for Amsterdam to profile itself assertivelyin the international arena. The Amsterdam Area consists of the partners paying contribution toAmsterdam Partners: the province of North-Holland and the municipalities of Almere,Aalsmeer, Haarlemmermeer, Zandvoort, Haarlem, Velsen and Amsterdam. Regionalbusiness, cultural institutions and higher education institutes are also well represented amongthe partners supporting the metropolitan marketing programme. The fact that fiveneighbouring municipalities - themselves important sub-centres and/or tourist destinations too- agreed to participate in an Amsterdam-centred campaign is a telling sign of growingwillingness for regional co-operation. On the campaign’s homepage, the marketing ideabehind ‘I Amsterdam’ is summarised as follows:“I Amsterdam is the motto that creates the brand for the city and people of Amsterdam. Insaying or expressing I Amsterdam, we demonstrate a clear choice for the city of Amsterdam. IAmsterdam shows our pride, our confidence and our dedication. I Amsterdam is our personalendorsement for our city. Using I Amsterdam, we can show clearly and proudly all the manybenefits, opportunities and dimensions of excellence that make Amsterdam our city ofchoice.” (http://www.iamsterdam.com/introducing/about_'i_amsterdam'/'i_amsterdam')

Several previously existing, but unconnected promotional activities have been merged andintensified under the common umbrella of the ‘I Amsterdam’ campaign. The organisationsinvolved in Amsterdam Partners have agreed to use the ‘I Amsterdam’ logo in theirpromotional activities as much as possible. In addition, several new activities have beendeveloped, including branch-specific events like the Amsterdam Fashion Week and the PicnicCross Media Week. These events put the spotlight on segments of the creative industries thatare still relatively small from an international perspective, but which Amsterdam hopes toexpand in the coming years. While most activities are aimed at an international audience ofvisitors, investors and companies, the I Amsterdam campaign has also been advertised amongthe regional population and regional stakeholders, amongst others with a glossy photo book.The book contains portraits of people living in, working in and visiting Amsterdam. Itexpresses the focus on people in the ‘I Amsterdam’ campaign.

Since the ‘I Amsterdam’ campaign has only started recently, it is yet too early to judge on theresults and effects of this metropolitan marketing programme. The joining of forces at themetropolitan level is already a positive result in itself. But will it result in attracting moreinternational companies and visitors than the previously existing local marketingprogrammes? The Metropolitan Area has managed to attract both more companies and morevisitors from abroad in recent years (see chapter 4), but the extent to which this is the directeffect of the intensified promotional efforts of the ‘I Amsterdam’ campaign is hard to assess.

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6.6 Spatial development: from polycentric region to metropolis?

The division of competences in spatial development within the region makes an integralspatial development perspective complicated. The Stadsregio Amsterdam does havecompetences in spatial planning, but it is much less influential than the provinces andmunicipalities. Normally speaking the provinces (in this case North Holland and Flevoland)are designing and implementing regional plans. Amsterdam, however, has a kind of spatialplanning autonomy within the province of North Holland. The city designs and implements itsown strategic spatial plans, while the provinces of North Holland and Flevoland makeregional plans for the rest of the Metropolitan Area. The regional spatial developmentperspective of the city of Amsterdam does not always correspond with that of the provinces.However, in recent years all parties involved seem to have improved their communication andco-operation and are stressing shared regional interests over local municipal interests to anincreasing extent. Next to the local and regional level, the national spatial planning levelshould of course also not be neglected. Still, after decades in which ‘top-down’ planning fromthe national political capital The Hague set the scene, a decentralisation process has been setin motion in the 1990s. The planning implementation philosophy of the national Ministry ofHousing, Planning and the Environment has become: ‘decentralised when possible,centralised when necessary’. Therefore, the most important strategic planning documents todiscuss in this section are two regional plans (for North Holland South and the NationalLandscape ‘Low Holland’), the structural plan of Amsterdam, and the joint efforts ofAmsterdam and Almere to develop as a ‘twin city’. Apart from that, we will review some ofthe most important spatial planning-related agreements of the Amsterdam Metropolitan Areain the ‘North Wing Conferences’.

The province of North Holland tries to relieve the enormous development pressure south ofthe North Sea Canal (especially around Schiphol airport) and to stimulate the development ofthe area north of that canal. Because sub-urbanisation was for decades mainly directedtowards the north of the province of North Holland and towards Flevoland, partly resultingfrom the national government’s new town policy of the 1960s and 1970s, the regional balancebetween residential and working locations has become seriously disturbed. Cities likeZaanstad and Almere have mainly developed as residential locations with a sub-urban image.Both the municipalities and the provinces involved want to transform their cities into moreurban and functionally more diversified places. At the same time, however, the province doesnot want to frustrate the further development of the southern edge of Amsterdam and the areaaround Schiphol into an international business hub. Despite the reservations against furtherboosting the Amsterdam-Schiphol area described above, therefore, the regional plan forNorth-Holland South (Provincie Noord-Holland, 2003) is a growth-oriented plan, whichmainly seems to serve to enable the further growth of Schiphol, the harbour and industrialcomplex around the north Sea Canal, and the horticultural cluster of Aalsmeer. The provincedefines seven tasks that are hard to combine: ‘space for water’, ‘development of valuablelandscapes’, ‘an accessible network city’, ‘space for residence’, ‘space for employment’,‘economic safeguarding of agriculture’, and ‘maintenance and development of cultural-historical values’. The regional plan mentions that 166,000 dwellings have to be built until2020. In the same period, the plan aims at 1,000 hectares of new business locations, but tolimit the further spatial expansion of business locations, redevelopment of existing locations

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is preferred and encouraged. The spatial planning task is complicated enough in a denselybuilt region like the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area, but it gets even more complicated sincesome parts of the region should be kept open to protect valuable landscapes, maintainsufficient space for recreation, and offer possibilities for water storage. The latter goal hasbecome more important in recent years under the influence of the climate change debate. TheNetherlands, and especially its western half which is largely below sea level, would be one ofthe first countries to suffer if the level of oceans and rivers will indeed rise as significantly asthe latest prognoses suggest. Contrary to Dutch tradition, some polders therefore are destinedto be flooded to create more room for water.

Directly north of the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area, and actually even covering its more ruralparts, is the recently installed National Landscape ‘Low Holland’. A spatial development planfor this area was agreed upon by the provincial parliament in late 2006. The largest part ofLow Holland consists of peat meadows and polders. It is one of the Dutch areas included inthe EU Natura 2000 programme, amongst others as an important bird area. The rich culturalhistory is an additional reason to protect this landscape. One of its polders, the Beemster, isincluded in the UNESCO World Heritage list as a typical example of the 16th- and 17th-century reclamations around Amsterdam. As the legal status of the National Landscapes isstill rather unclear, it remains to be seen how powerful this instrument will be in protectingopen landscapes and cultural and natural heritage. As it is defined until now, however, it lookslike construction of housing, infrastructure and business locations in the Waterland sub-regionwill be restricted to a minimum. The same is true for the polders between Zaanstad andIJmond, but this area might eventually be transformed into harbour and other business areasto add to the harbour-industry complex along the North Sea Canal. Zaanstad, meanwhile, isalmost completely surrounded by the area included in the National Landscape, which mightresult in serious problems in realising possible further extensions in the future. On the otherhand, the city governments of both Zaanstad and Amsterdam consider the nearness andaccessibility of leisure and nature areas close to their cities very important, so especiallyWaterland will probably largely be spared in future extension plans. The cities of Amsterdamand Zaanstad are even official partners in the co-operative organisation that is founded torealise the National Landscape goals. Apart from these cities, the province of north-Hollandand the municipalities within the national Landscape borders, also several nature protectionand agricultural organisations take part in this co-operative network (http://www.laag-holland.nl).

The most recent structural plan of Amsterdam (DRO, 2003) is titled ‘choosing for urbanity’.With this motto the Amsterdam urban planners link to the revival of Amsterdam as anattractive residential and business environment since the mid-1980s. The structural plancontinues and intensifies the compact city planning philosophy that Amsterdam startedalready around 1980. Its main target therefore is realising mixed and lively urbanenvironments, preferably at sites well connected with public transport. Next to thecontinuation of projects that fit well in this philosophy, like the new high-status businesslocation South Axis, the regeneration of Amsterdam Southeast and the Western GardenCities, and the latest residential city extension IJburg, ambitious new urban regenerationprojects are announced in the structure plan. These new projects are mainly located in thenorth of the city, where former harbour and business areas are transformed into mixed living,

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working and leisure areas. Another area to be upgraded is the island on which the centralrailway station is built. The station itself is already being renovated intensively and buildingactivities around the station have meanwhile started as well. The area is destined to become anew cultural centre, including the main public library, a new music theatre, a conservatory, aconference centre, offices and apartments. The local and regional public transport network isimproved and expanded, amongst others with the North-South subway line. At the same time,the highway and road infrastructure is also significantly improved in an attempt to alleviatethe growing congestion problems. The improvement of public space and the city’s ecologicalinfrastructure (parks, water, and the agricultural and natural areas around the city) also getample attention in the plan. The structural plan also emphasises the growing regional ambitionof the Amsterdam urban planners. Amsterdam and its Metropolitan Area are presented as a‘network city’, in which several specialised sub-centres should be developed complementaryto each other.

The latter point has contributed to the emergence of ‘twin city’ concept, which envisions thedevelopment of Amsterdam and Almere as a polycentric metropolis around the IJ lake.Almere was founded in 1976 and initially developed as a predominantly residential city. Itsmain task was to offer an attractive residential environment for people leaving Amsterdam, tochannel the massive sub-urbanisation movement of the 1970s. Other places in the AmsterdamMetropolitan Area like Haarlemmermeer and Purmerend also got this task, but Almere haseventually developed on a significantly larger scale than those municipalities. In recent years,Almere has undertaken serious efforts to become a more urban place. Amsterdam and Almereare working on a spatial development programme for the IJ lake, where the two cities shouldbecome better connected. A bridge-tunnel link for public and private motorised traffic,combined with a new series of islands with high-status residential areas, is a serious option forthe coming years. These plans are still quite uncertain though and meet considerableresistance of nature protection movements, but also of the residents of IJburg, who fear thattheir district might be crossed with busy rail and road links between the cities.

In recent years, a shift from formal hierarchical to less formal plan-making has occurred in theAmsterdam Metropolitan Area. The regional plan for north Holland-South discussed abovehas rapidly become outdated. Instead of drawing up a revised version of this plan, theprovince and the region have discussed the most urgent planning decisions at the North WingConferences (see section 2.2, 6.1.1 and 6.1.3). The most recent conference took place inFebruary 2007. At this conference important decisions were taken about the amount of officespace and business areas to be developed in the next decades. Finally the municipalitieswithin the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area managed to agree on a realistic amount of officespace and business areas for the region as a whole. This resulted in the historic decision tocancel 3.5 million square metres of office space. The negative experience of only about 5years ago, when the amount of vacant office space rose rapidly as a result of a sharp economicdownturn and a lack of mutual adjustment of local office plans, will no doubt have played arole in this decision. A second topic discussed at this conference was the ‘metropolitanlandscape’. The abundance of water and relatively open green areas between the region’scities and villages is quite unique for a metropolitan region. However, this landscape isincreasingly under threat and the conference delegates discussed how to improve landscapeprotection. At earlier North Wing Conferences, agreements were reached on large

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infrastructure projects, the division of the regional housing task across the municipalitiesinvolved, and initiatives to support the attraction of creative industries (see section 6.1.3).Meanwhile, a long-range future perspective is being developed: Noordvleugel 2040. Thisinitiative was launched in February 2007, and should result in a regional development visionwith broad support throughout the region by December 2007.

6.7 Housing, social and cultural policy in the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area

6.7.1 Housing policy: increasing owner-occupation and working against segregation

As mentioned before (chapters 3 and 4), Amsterdam has built up a reputation of being mainlya city of social housing. In general, the social rented sector is relatively big in theNetherlands, when placed in an international context. There are a few reasons for this. First ofall, in the Netherlands, the relationship between the position on the housing market andincome has been changed as a result of welfare arrangements since the 1950s. Because of rentrebates, low-income households have been enabled to move into relatively new, high-qualityand more expensive dwellings. Also, the social rented sector is considered attractive becauseit includes a large proportion of larger (single-family) housing and because of the often goodstate of dwellings. The units are generally allocated to low-income households, but tenantscannot be evicted when their income increases. This, in combination with the relatively highprices of owner occupied dwellings and the relatively low prices of social rented dwellings,has created a situation where one fifth of the social rented housing stock is inhabited byhouseholds with a relatively high income. Especially in cities with a tight housing market, likeAmsterdam, this so-called ‘mismatch’ is occurring. There is both quantitative and qualitativeshortage of housing due to a combination of high demand and lack of space.

Since the 1980s, the government gradually started to withdraw from its deep involvement inhousing and a shift toward a more market-oriented strategy occurred. One of the intendedeffects was to limit the mismatch on the housing market (Van Kempen, 1998). As a result,since 1993, more non-subsidised dwellings than subsidised dwellings have been built. In themid-1990s, housing corporations became private non-profit organizations and in order to earnsome money, the purchase of dwellings was stimulated. Concerning this point, the Dutchpolicy is, however, still different from other European housing policies. Whereas tenants havea right to buy their rented dwelling in the UK, tenants can only offer to buy in theNetherlands; the social housing provider cannot be forced to sell the dwelling (Aalbers,2004).

Especially in Amsterdam, the selling of social rented dwellings is considered a politicallysensitive issue, because it would imply a break with the social-centred housing tradition of thecity. Also, there are differences between the policy agendas on the city-wide and boroughlevels and even within housing associations, there are diverging interests that hamper radicalpolicy changes. Furthermore, the Dutch political culture of consultation and compromising(the so-called ‘polder model’) makes it difficult to pursue controversial policies. As a result ofthese factors, the selling of social rented dwellings has made a slow start, but over the lastcouple of years, a process of privatisation has been set in. Parts of the social-rented housing

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stock are replaced by or converted into owner-occupied dwellings. Corporations should,however, be careful that not only sell the best segments of the social housing stock are sold(Aalbers, 2004).

Next to the ambition to create a more balanced housing market in which owner-occupancy isbetter represented, the city of Amsterdam also gives high priority to prevention of ethnic andsocio-economic segregation. As we demonstrated in chapter 4, Amsterdam still does not havethe high levels of segregation of American cities or European ‘global cities’ like London orParis. Even the districts with a high concentration of ethnic minorities and/or socio-economicdeprivation are still quite mixed in population composition. This does not mean thatsegregation should not be expected to increase in the coming years, though. The city ofAmsterdam is ware that political action continues to be needed to prevent higher levels ofsegregation and polarisation. Even though the philosophy that contacts between populationcategories are more likely to emerge at the workplace or in schools gains ground, residentialmixing strategies remain popular among local and national politicians. Especially in large-scale regeneration programmes like in Amsterdam Southeast and the Western Garden Cities,the Amsterdam housing department and housing corporations are convinced that changes inthe built environment will result in a more mixed population. Large housing estates are torndown or refurbished and partly replaced by low-rise row housing which should specificallyattract the middle class. The selling of the social housing stock is also seen as a means topromote more mixed populations in the most deprived parts of the city. It is yet too early tojudge on the effects of this mixing strategy, but research results so far do not lookencouraging (see for example Musterd & Murie, 2006; Andersson & Musterd, 2005)

The problems of the Amsterdam housing market might partly be solved by a more integratedregional housing market. After all, as shown in chapter 4, the owner-occupied sector is muchbetter represented in most other parts of the Metropolitan Area than it is in Amsterdam. Thefirst attempts towards regional integration are in progress. A relevant initiative in this regardis ‘Woningnet’: people searching social housing in the Amsterdam region can now react tooffers from the whole region instead of only one municipality. In addition, Amsterdamhousing corporations are increasingly merging or co-operating with corporations ofsurrounding cities and suburbs like Haarlem, Almere and Haarlemmermeer. However, theseare only first small steps and a truly regional housing market still seems a distant goal.Another notorious problem of the Amsterdam housing market discussed in chapter 4, the veryrapid rise of housing prices in general and in the owner-occupied and private rental sector inparticular, have meanwhile spread across most of the Metropolitan Area. So have the longwaiting lists for social housing, though these are still considerably shorter in cities likeZaanstad and Almere. Haarlem was a quite popular destination for Amsterdammers with anurban living preference but limited financial resources in the 1990s, but this city meanwhilehas an almost equally problematic housing market as Amsterdam. Therefore, those leavingAmsterdam in search for more spacious but affordable housing are increasingly forced tocross the Metropolitan Area borders. The recent attempts to create a regional housing marketshould also be seen as an attempt to increase the regional ability to attract and keep especiallymiddle-income households. People working in the creative and knowledge-intensiveindustries are a prominent target group within this broader middle class category.

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6.7.2 Social and cultural policy: the Social Structure Plan and ‘We Amsterdammers’

The Social Structure Plan (Gemeente Amsterdam 2005) stresses ‘investing in metropolitandynamics’ and ‘investing in human capital’ as two of its three policy goals. The former goal isconnected to the future perspective of an internationally competitive creative knowledge city;the latter goal is related to stimulating personal development and the participation of citizens.Just like the economic development programme ‘Amsterdam Top City’ (section 6.3), RichardFlorida’s ideas on the creative class have clearly inspired the Social Structure Plan. Theauthors of the Social Structure Plan see a promising perspective for Amsterdam both as aknowledge and cultural city. However, strong efforts should be undertaken to realise thispotential, and this requires a cross-sectoral approach in which social and cultural policy joinforces with economic, spatial planning and housing policy. Problems are especially seen inthe match between supply and demand of housing and workspace, traffic accessibility, as wellas between qualifications and labour market demands, and the maintenance of Amsterdam’straditional tolerant image. The Social Structure Plan mentions that creative cities can only besuccessful if they manage to quickly adopt new markets, lifestyles and behaviour patternswithout large social conflicts. The third main policy goal of the plan, ‘investing in a liveableenvironment’, mainly addresses this prevention of social conflicts. The three main policygoals are elaborated further in thematic chapters: ‘knowledge city’, ‘working city’, ‘culturalcity’, ‘sportive city’, ‘caring city’, and ‘safe city’. The many policy actions announced in theplan include investments in education (with specific attention for vocational schools);improving housing market access for students and those working in creative and knowledge-intensive industries; improving physical and digital connectivity; reducing unemploymentbelow the Dutch national average; investing in cultural and tourist attractiveness; preventionof poverty; and increasing participation in society, including what is called ‘activatingAmsterdam citizenship’.

As mentioned in section 6.7.1, Amsterdam is actively working against polarisation betweenpopulation groups, especially between ethnic groups. The events of ‘9-11’ still seemed toaffect other Dutch cities (most notably Rotterdam) much more than Amsterdam. But with themurder of movie director Theo van Gogh in 2004, the growing tensions between the nativeDutch and ethnic minority groups become apparent in Amsterdam as well. The immediateresponse of the Amsterdam city government was the programme Wij Amsterdammers (‘WeAmsterdammers’)’launched only two weeks later. In 2006, the second phase of thisprogramme was started. The central motto of phase II of Wij Amsterdammers is ‘investing inpeople and limits’. The programme wants to cross borders between ethnic groups andencourage inter-ethnic and inter-cultural contacts, but at the same time it wants to make clearthat tolerance has its limits, even in Amsterdam. In the policy programme, the citygovernment makes clear that it expects all Amsterdam citizens to protect and respect ‘rules ofdecency’ on the one hand and the principles of a ‘free and tolerant society’ on the other(Gemeente Amsterdam, 2006). The city government wants to encourage integration ofindividuals within their own ethnic groups, which should then also contribute to integration inAmsterdam’s society as a whole. Ethnic organisations are considered as importantintermediaries to stimulate integration of ethnic minorities. But ethnic minorities and nativeDutch are also encouraged to meet and get to know each other and to become active for theirlocal community. Among the activities to encourage this are the poster campaign ‘what do

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you do for the city?’, yearly meeting events like the ‘Day of the Dialogue’ and the‘Amsterdam Day’, a ‘real life soap’ in which residents of a housing estate in Amsterdam-West play characters based on their daily living experiences, and a ‘virtual office for goodideas’.

6.7.3 Fostering creative talent: the ‘broedplaatsen’ programme

In recent years several initiatives at the crossroads of cultural, economic and spatialdevelopment policy have been developed in the city of Amsterdam and in other parts of theMetropolitan Area. The prime Amsterdam example of this hybrid project category is the‘broedplaatsen’ programme. This programme, led by the city’s Programme ManagementOffice, involves the provision of incubation spaces for non-commercial artists and startingcreative entrepreneurs. The project emerged on the Amsterdam policy agenda in reaction tothe plea of artists and (former) squatters to stop the loss of buildings and spaces for non-commercial art and alternative lifestyles. Initially, most artists and squatters were happy thatthey finally managed to put the importance of space for sub-cultures on the municipalpolitical agenda. Meanwhile, emotions on both sides of this rather unique developmentpartnership are more mixed. On the one hand, the municipality, especially the EconomicDepartment, expects more entrepreneurship (and eventually commercial success) from theartists and starting creative entrepreneurs. The artists and creative entrepreneurs, on the otherhand, increasingly have problems with the formal arrangements the municipality isdemanding and fear that they are limited in their artistic freedom. The difference between theformalized broedplaatsen and the spontaneous vrijplaatsen (spaces occupied by artists and/orsquatters without government intervention) seems to have gradually grown, much to thedisappointment of some artists and (former) squatters (see Arnoldus 2004 and Uitermark 2004for a more detailed discussion). Other artists and creative entrepreneurs are very happy withthe chance offered through this programme to get or keep access to affordable working space,though. But their plea to the city government to leave room for experiment, surprise andbottom-up initiatives was expressed loud and clear in a series of interviews evaluating the firstfive years of the programme (Luyten, 2005). The Programme Management Office is puttingmuch effort in meeting the space demands of artists and creative entrepreneurs on the onehand, and making the broedplaatsen programme fit in the city’s (commercial) creativeindustries ambitions on the other. The programme will run at least until 2010, and hasmeanwhile inspired several Dutch and foreign cities to launch similar initiatives.

Zaanstad and Haarlem are two of these inspired cities. Zaanstad has embraced the creativeindustries as a sector which might contribute to economic recovery after the gradual demise ofthe food industry and the disappearance of the shipbuilding industry. The city government ofZaanstad is convinced that it can offer spaces and buildings that Amsterdam has a shortage of:large former manufacturing complexes offering considerable freedom to artists and startingcreative entrepreneurs to redesign according to their particular needs. These sites are mainlyconcentrated at a former artillery production complex at the North Sea Canal (Hembrug area)and along the Zaan River. Apart from space and relatively low rents, some of these complexesalso offer high architectural quality that might be an additional attraction to creative talentsand creative industries.

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Haarlem has so far been less active in developing a specific ‘creative city’ programme. Still,several initiatives were taken in recent years both by the local government and by creativesthemselves to enrich the creative and cultural offer in the city. The best known example is theLichtfabriek. This former lighting factory has been transformed at first into a breeding groundof artists and starting creative entrepreneurs that could not afford a place elsewhere in the city.Meanwhile, however, the project has become much more commercial and many of the initialusers could no longer afford to stay. Other remarkable cultural investments in Haarleminclude a new theatre and the refurbishment and upgrading of the pop concert hall.

6.8 Towards a complementary creative knowledge region?

Both in spatial planning policy and economic development policy, the Amsterdam urbanregion is increasingly seen as a polycentric area with an increasing interdependence betweenthe traditional core city and the smaller cities in its surroundings (see also section 6.4 and6.6). The local authorities of Almere and Zaanstad in particular see their cities ascomplementary to Amsterdam. Zaanstad is increasingly aware that its future is unavoidablyconnected to its large neighbour Amsterdam. It sees complementary roles for both cities in acreative knowledge region: Amsterdam can profile and develop itself as a creative knowledgecity, while Zaanstad would become its ‘creative working place’, following its manufacturingtradition. While the Zaanstad municipality wants to offer (relatively cheap) space for creativeindustries and artists, Almere mainly seeks to strengthen its ICT sector and its educationalfacilities. This happens in the context of a fast-growing city that is still suffering from arelative lack of jobs and urban facilities, despite its rapid catching up on both dimensions inrecent years. Almere is not striving to compete with Amsterdam, but rather tries to develop itsown economic identity complementary to that of Amsterdam and the other regional sub-centres. Being a young city, Almere managed to attract innovative parts of the ICT sectoralready in the 1990s, and is pioneering in the Netherlands in offering large-scale optic fibrenetworks to local entrepreneurs and households. The city would like to expand the ICT sectorand add higher education and academic research.

Contrary to Zaanstad and Almere, Haarlem hardly has space to expand or restructure and untilrecently city politicians did not seem very interested in creativity and creative activists. Thepolytechnic Inholland - with 11 branch locations, 5 of which are in the AmsterdamMetropolitan Area - decided to expand in Haarlem, which created room for the new mediafaculty. It was not connected to any attempt to meet Haarlem’s labour market demands or toprofile Haarlem as a media city. In addition, Haarlem has only few cheap and unregulatedspaces for starting artists or creative start-up companies. A fortunate exception to that rule, theformer energy production complex already mentioned in section 6.7, has been sold to acommercial developer that raised rents significantly (Bontje et al., forthcoming). Morerecently, plans were made to redevelop the former chocolate factory of Droste into a mixedworking-residential environment that might accommodate creative industries. Haarlemmanaged to feature in a Financial Times article in October 2006, which might signal a moreactive marketing of the city as a creative centre. This article, however, especially suggests thatHaarlem still sees itself mainly as a residential competitor of Amsterdam, offering detached

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and semi-detached houses in an urban setting while Amsterdam’s offer is mainly limited toapartments (Financial Times, 28 October 2006).

On the regional level, the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area (see section 6.1) is actively involvedin initiatives to attract creative and knowledge-intensive industries and to accommodate theseindustries. This includes project proposals for the Dutch national subsidy and incentiveprogrammes ‘Peaks in the Delta’ and ‘Creative Challenge Call’ (see section 1.3). Probably themost ambitious project is ‘Creative industries / creative cities Amsterdam Area’. The aim ofthis project is to develop a regional programming office for the creative industries. Next to theAmsterdam Metropolitan area, also the Utrecht region is involved in this project. Projectparticipants include amongst others seven cities, three provinces (Noord-Holland, Utrecht andFlevoland), two Chambers of Commerce, and the Amsterdam Innovation Motor.

6.9 Conclusions: opportunities and challenges for the Amsterdam MetropolitanArea

Without doubt, the Amsterdam urban region is both an attractive location to live for creativeand higher educated people and an attractive business location for creative and knowledge-intensive industries. Amsterdam already is a creative knowledge city considering itspopulation composition and its economic structure and dynamics. It would be a logical choiceof the municipality of Amsterdam to further strengthen this profile, and to involve the urbanregion in a ‘creative knowledge region’ strategy. As the preceding sections havedemonstrated, this tendency of increasing regional co-operation and co-ordination has alreadybeen set in motion in recent years. Other parts of the Metropolitan Area might well be able toprovide assets that the city of Amsterdam has a shortage of. This might apply for example toaffordable residential space for creative talents and affordable working space for startingcreative and knowledge-intensive companies in cities like Almere, Haarlem and Zaanstad. Itmight also apply to space to expand for companies no longer fitting in the densely builtenvironment of Amsterdam’s inner city (Haarlemmermeer, Almere), and attractive high-statusresidential environments for managers of creative and knowledge-intensive companies inother parts of the Metropolitan Area (Gooi and coastal zone). The bewildering array ofgovernments, institutions and organisations involved in the presented regional co-operationinitiatives proves that a coherent regional competitiveness strategy supported by stakeholdersthroughout the region will be a huge challenge. Actually the stakeholders we presented in thischapter are only the ‘tip of the iceberg’; presenting a truly complete overview would probablyhave produced a book instead of a chapter.

One of the main challenges for the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area might be to hold on to the‘sense of urgency’ that seems to have emerged in recent years to take action to improveregional competitiveness. The healthy state of the local and regional economy, quicklyrecovering after the post-9-11-crisis, could easily produce a climate of satisfaction. From ahistorical perspective, Amsterdam and its policy-makers have generally not been modest.Also currently, many leading politicians and civil servants in Amsterdam like to see their cityas one of the most important European or even global centres. This results for example in astrong belief that Amsterdam is and will always stay a financial centre of international

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importance, and that Schiphol Airport will continue to be one of Europe’s largest and mostimportant airport hubs. A quite different dimension where this tendency to satisfaction alsolures is the reputation of Amsterdam as a tolerant city. It is understandable that Amsterdam isproud on this international reputation, but is it still deserved? Fortunately the Amsterdam citygovernment seems quite aware that this tolerance has been seriously threatened in recent yearsand an intensive effort of the local government with representatives of civic society hasalready started. Finally, again in a quite other political dimension, the ambitions ofAmsterdam to grow into a metropolis in the top league of world cities run the risk of revivingthe past ‘anti-Amsterdam’ sentiments in the surrounding cities and villages. If the AmsterdamMetropolitan Area really wants to intensify its co-operation and grow into a metropolitanregion, the balance of powers between the central city and other parts of the region is animportant issue to take into account. However, as said before, the recent tendency ofimproved regional co-operation and co-ordination looks promising. If policy-makers manageto maintain the positive spirit in regional co-operation of recent years, the next challenge willprobably be to also encourage the feeling of ‘regional belonging’ of the inhabitants of theAmsterdam Metropolitan Area.

The most recent policy documents expressing Amsterdam’s competitiveness programme,especially ‘Amsterdam Top City’, seem to have a mostly economic focus. Thecompetitiveness agenda of Amsterdam, like that of most other European cities, also seems tobe targeting a rather selective population category: higher educated young people. A broaderintegral vision and programme on what Amsterdam needs to develop further as a creativeknowledge city should be developed. Many questions have remained unanswered so far. Towhat extent are the ambitions of ‘Amsterdam Top City’ in line with other strategic policydocuments like the Social Structure Plan and the Structural Plan of the spatial planners? Howcan a competitive city become or remain a social, liveable and sustainable city? How to turnthe city’s competitiveness programme into a socio-economically inclusive strategy to thebenefit of the entire city population, or at least a majority of it? Can ‘creative knowledge’really deliver sustainable economic growth and become the basis of the city economy, orshould it rather be seen as one of several important sectors? It would be even better to developsuch a vision and programme at the Metropolitan Area level. This produces additionalquestions like: What do other parts of the Metropolitan Area think of Amsterdam’scompetitiveness ambitions? And what can other centres in the Metropolitan Area likeHaarlem, Almere and Zaanstad add to Amsterdam’s competitive strength? As promising asthe future prospects of the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area as a creative knowledge regionmight already look, a lot of work still remains to be done.

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7 Preliminary conclusions of the Amsterdam case study

It can be concluded that Amsterdam’s rich history as a trade and cultural centre is still visiblein the early 21st century. Currently, the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area is still theeconomically most powerful region of the Netherlands and the regional economy is stilldominated by the service sector (85% of all regional employment; even 92% in the city ofAmsterdam). The region is specialized most in the sectors transport, distribution andcommunication, financial services and hotels and restaurants. Also, the region has an aboveaverage share of professionals and senior officials, and this share has been growing as wellover the last few years. The regional economy is very diverse, which means that a decline inone sector can always be compensated or at least mitigated by growth in other sectors. Thismakes the city less vulnerable in times of economic change.

Also, we can conclude that the Amsterdam region already is a creative knowledge region,both in terms of its economic profile and its population composition. The creative andknowledge sectors play a relatively big role in the regional economy: 31% of all companies,compared to only 22% nationally. Furthermore, in terms of ‘soft factors’ the region appears tohave a favourable profile, which makes the region an attractive settlement location forcreative knowledge companies and workers. Although this analysis seems to be a successstory, some difficult challenges still remain for the policy-makers in the region.

First of all, although the creative knowledge sectors turn out to be significant in theAmsterdam region, knowledge-intensive work is suited only for a limited segment of theregional population. Still two-thirds of all companies are currently within other sectors andalso low-skilled (service) jobs should not be forgotten in economic policy-making. The mainquestion remains how the whole region, or at least a majority of it, could benefit from acompetitiveness programme that focuses on creative and knowledge intensive employment.Amsterdam is known for its social-centred political culture, and this does not always go handin hand with competitive strategies. Finding a balance between the economic and the socialgoals will be a daring challenge for the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area. Thus, can a region beboth competitive and social-centred?

Second, the regional economy is very much dependent on Schiphol international airport. Thequestion, however, remains whether Schiphol can continue growing. Space is scarce in theregion and already many residential areas in the vicinity of the airport have become close tounliveable due to noise pollution. Partly for this reason, the further growth of Schiphol is acontroversial issue, but still this is a crucial issue for the future competitiveness of theAmsterdam region. Relocation of the airport has already been considered, but until nowwithout realistic alternatives.

Third, although Amsterdam can still benefit from its image as a ‘tolerant city’, policy-makersshould keep their eyes open to recent developments that are changing this picture. Especiallysince the murder of film-maker Theo van Gogh in 2004, inter-ethnic relations have become

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more problematic. Also, we have shown that Amsterdam is losing ground within the gayscene, also because of perceptions of decreased tolerance, and runs the risk of losing itsreputation as ‘gay capital of Europe’. Policy makers should take such signs seriously andfortunately, this appears to be the case with the new local government of Amsterdam.

Finally and most importantly, the focus of policy-making should be much more on the regionthan on the city of Amsterdam alone. Our analysis has shown that the creative knowledgesectors are dispersed across several parts of the region and that Amsterdam is no longer theonly important economic centre. Also, creative and knowledge workers do not all live insidethe central urban milieus and should not be seen as one single group with homogeneousresidential preferences. The region in fact offers assets that the city has a shortage of. Forinstance, building space for residential and employment districts. There are still some large-scale projects running within the city, like the South Axis (offices) and IJburg (residential),but once these are finished, there will not be any space left for further expansions. Also thecurrent housing stock in the region offers possibilities that are not available in the core city:large single-family houses are scarce in Amsterdam, but can be found in other sub-regions.Thus, regional coordination of the housing market and spatial planning should be consideredbefore drastic actions are taken within the city of Amsterdam. Amsterdam should be cautiouswith trying to turn its entire inner-city into an elite district, as this could in fact severelydamage the socio-economic and socio-cultural mix in Amsterdam’s inner-city, which hasalways been regarded a strong asset of Amsterdam, and thereby also the specific character ofcertain neighbourhoods. Displacement of low-income groups (perhaps even including certaincreative workers), and thus increasing segregation, could be the outcome. The region alsooffers green spaces, and especially diversity of landscapes, which are highly valued bycreative and knowledge workers. Finally, Amsterdam’s main economic motor, Schipholinternational airport, is also located outside the municipal borders of Amsterdam.

These points make clear that we should speak of a creative knowledge region, rather than acreative knowledge city. In fact, Amsterdam and its neighbouring municipalities are prettymuch interdependent and this interdependency should be reflected in policy-making. At firstsight, it might seem problematic in this respect that regional co-operation only takes place ininformal networks and that there is no regional political entity. The opportunity to create suchan entity was in fact turned down by residents in the ‘city province referendum’ in 1995, butthere are recent signs of an increasing willingness to co-operate by municipalities within theregion. Another problematic factor could be the blurred definition of ‘the Amsterdam region’.All regional co-operation networks involve different combinations of municipalities and someare even on the level of the whole Randstad region. But looking at the promising accelerationand intensification of regional co-operation in the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area in recentyears, the supposed weakness of a lack of regional authorities might turn into a strength:informal regional governance might in the end lead to more results than a formalised regionalgovernment.

In short, although the future perspective of the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area looks bright atfirst sight, still a lot of work has to be done in order to keep this positive picture intact.Especially more effective and clear regional co-operation will be necessary if the Amsterdamregion wants to retain its competitiveness in the future.

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